lush

LUSH (2022) is a solo exhibition of works by multidisciplinary artist Heidi Grace Acuña. Since beginning their professional art career in 2017 in Seattle, Acuña has continued to explore and reflect on their identities and values through various materials. Regardless of the medium, Acuña’s works share themes of nature, the body, gender, community, culture, and growth. Acuña believes in the need for vulnerable transparency in sharing intimate experiences with the world in order for us to heal and thrive.

By reclaiming the human–body, mind, and soul–as natural, and beautifully imperfect in their works, Acuña hopes to challenge perceptions and societal expectations. Nature beautifully exists knowing nothing about perfection. “Perfection” is a man-made concept that limits, discourages, and depreciates people.

The word “lush” encompasses the current artworks Acuña has exhibited here. “Lush” is an adjective that can be used in multiple ways: to describe luxuriously growing nature, that it is fertile, thriving, abundant, and prosperous. “Lush” can also be used to describe something that is savory, delicious, attractive, opulent, or sumptuous. 
LUSH (2022) invites the viewer to reflect on how the unnatural idea of perfection impacts their individual and communal human experience.