Nature as Refuge: Inside the Beguiling World of David Wiseman

V isitors are greeted at the door of HomeArt by a heavy bronze doorpull. But look closer, and gleaming figures emerge in the half-light: a bird perched on a tree branch, creeping tendrils of sinuous burnished leaves, and the semi-concealed figure of an upside-down gecko, its jade green patina visible beneath the verdant foliage. Inside the room, a surreal rendition of the natural world unfolds: a midnight blue meadow spun from wool and silk spills out from under an “ongo” mushroom-shaped table. Carved from wood, it is covered in the looping, bronze and resin fan-shaped “turkey tails” of wild fungi. Turkey tails, together with natural basket weaves and crystalline lattices and other leitmotifs of the natural world, recur throughout “Nature as Refuge,” American designer David Wiseman’s inaugural Hong Kong exhibition, from the vermilion-hued resin and bronze chair to the corner console table, from which an exquisite weeping cherry tree sprouts, lightly brushing the heads of onlookers with delicate skeins of bronze and flowering sprays of milky white porcelain petals. Amidst the pomegranates, screw-pines, acorns, seedpods and yams, a bronze monkey peers out at the scene, its intelligent face captured in a moment of preternatural calm.

“A lot of the show is about a longing to be close to nature. We grew up in Pasadena, which is considered an urban forest when seen from above, it's all trees. And yet, even though there's nature everywhere, I felt a sense of estrangement from it, in terms of our interiors, in terms of objects, not feeling as connected as we could be,” says Wiseman. “So, a lot of the work is about evoking that longing of connection to our origin.”

To experience the work of David Wiseman in person is less to be a visitor than a participant in a wholly new kind of gesamtkunstwerk. “Nature as Refuge” began life as an unusual commission in 2020. Wiseman was called upon by the eminent Hong Kong collector Rosaline Wong, a longtime supporter of his work and the proprietor of HomeArt, to create a room in response to two Claude Monet paintings of his beloved waterlily pond at Giverny.

“This was a dream commission to think about. This is a conversation between Monet, the collector, Rosaline, and myself. I wanted to make this fictitious dinner party. And so that was in my mind, that we were gonna have a conversation about nature, and art, and mythology, and symbolism,” says Wiseman. In the four years that followed, Wiseman immersed himself in the world of Chinese mythology and traditions, going on to create his first full narrative work, The Four Seasons of Flower Fruit Mountain (2024) (documented in this publication).

The bronze was cast in-house at Wiseman’s California studio, with 1,000 pounds of bronze being poured each week. In a painstaking process, Wiseman added and subtracted the bronze in real time, allowing the design process to evolve until everything “felt right.”

A closer look at the organic forms of many of Wiseman’s bronze works also reveals a meticulous technique resembling the ancient art of Chinese cloisonné, whereby little coloured resin beads covered in black ink resin were pressed into the crevices of bronze forms. Polished smooth, these vibrant cells of colour and intricate inky veins recall semi-precious minerals like turquoise.

“Nature as Refuge” is in many ways a full circle moment for Wiseman, cementing a long held enchantment with East Asian culture. Wiseman’s influences traverse the full spectrum of East-West art and design: the American artist-designer Isamu Noguchi, woodworker-architect George Nakashima, sculptor Alexander Calder, the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) founded in 1903 by architect Josef Hoffmann, as well as traditional Asian design, from minimalist Japanese interiors to Korean hanoks and Chinese watercolours.

“I've always felt such a strong affinity for Asian art. The idea of not necessarily verisimilitude, but capturing the essence of something is my goal as well. So, I feel like a kindred spirit in that way, that my goal is to not just copy nature, but to evoke some kind of emotion with its depiction,” says Wiseman.

Wiseman singles out one particular inspiration for his practice, an old exhibition catalogue of Chinese woodcuts he had discovered whilst studying at Rhode Island School of Design, which he poetically describes as “a haiku of objects.”

“It depicted a flower, a rock, and a scroll. And there was a whole series of them, and they were just distillations of nature, and they just embedded themselves in my unconscious for 20 years.”

Transforming arrangements of objects into three-dimensional collages is a device Wiseman has used to weave together grand narratives about the natural world, but also to present the teeming micro-ecology of histories and memories associated with each individual piece. For example, the gleaming table-top oranges, glazed in a variety of shades from mid-green to succulent tangerine ripeness, evoke Wiseman’s childhood and life amidst the orange trees of Pasadena, whilst also connecting his practice with Chinese Lunar New Year traditions. Similarly, the bronze Sonoran Desert toads tie together ancient shamanistic rituals and medicinal beliefs with a tongue-in-cheek reference to Wiseman’s Frogtown-based studio. The aforementioned monkey draws on man’s relationship with its closest relatives in the natural world, speaking to the legend of the Monkey King as well as reimagining a highly personal work Wiseman made a decade ago of a monkey offering a cup of scented oil in its outstretched palm, its expression pained as the candle flame licked the underside of his hand. Like the sculptural River of Life (2026) that wends its way effortlessly up the walls of HomeArt’s hushed gallery, Wiseman’s work attests to the majestic and irrepressible power of nature.

“They're complete worlds in and of themselves. So that's another really important facet. I want each piece to kind of be an entire ecosystem, an entire world. Each has its own narrative that's very complete.”

Like the ancient Chinese literati, Wiseman treats nature less as scenery to be copied than as a language for cultivation – an inward practice carried into form. His ecosystems of bronze, resin, and porcelain feel “written” rather than merely made; layered, symbolic, and intended to reward slow reading the way a Chinese handscroll rewards the patient gaze. In “Nature as Refuge,” a romantic longing for rapprochement with nature becomes his method. Where the literati sought refuge from worldly noise through brush, stone, and landscape, Wiseman fashions a parallel sanctuary in objects, myths, and materials. Transcending botanical detail into meaning beyond form, Wiseman invites the viewer not only to see, but to dwell.

Nature as Refuge is on view at HomeArt, Hong Kong from 23 March through 23 September 2026.