Natalie Beisswanger: Habitat

The word habitat comes from the Latin habitare — “to live” or “to dwell.” It refers not only to the physical space where life thrives, but also to the interwoven networks of shelter, nourishment, memory, and meaning that make a place feel like home. It is both wild and intimate, fragile and necessary.

In this spirit, Australian artist Natalie Beisswanger invites us into her world, where art becomes a refuge for endangered life and a meditation on coexistence.

At the heart of Habitat is a series of delicately rendered paintings of Australia’s endangered birds and mammals, created for Beisswanger’s forthcoming book.

The Regent Honeyeater, Koala, and Redtail Cockatoo — once abundant, now rare — are captured with tenderness and scientific precision. Through her work, Beisswanger mourns their decline while affirming their beauty. She paints not only to document, but to protect, evoking the ancient kinship between art and conservation.

The exhibition’s setting in the Englischer Garten holds special meaning for the artist. Revisiting the Orangerie, where she first exhibited in 2020. She has walked the leafy paths, and created works in quiet corners of the park during the pandemic. For her, this urban oasis has become a kind of second home — a European counterpoint to the Australian landscapes that inspired her, and now, through her art, the natural habitat of the animals she has gently painted into the English Garden.

Also on view are Beisswanger’s large-scale flower collages — bold, immersive compositions where tropical and temperate blooms coincide exuberantly. These layered works, part paper sculpture and part painting, celebrate biodiversity with the theatricality of a Baroque bouquet. Look closely and you’ll find surreal touches: cats, beetles, fragments of ceramic all conspiring in a playful interaction of color and form.