Mutation Invasion: Flesh-Eating Flora

Oh no!! The Botanical Gardens is under siege by an abundance of mutated, flesh-eating plants! Carnivorous plants from the permanent collection such as venus flytraps, sundews, and pitcher plants as well as some other creepy plants will be on display along with a marvelous collection of bug-snatching sculptures created by local artist, Melanie Fisher. Visitors will not only learn more about these shocking and interesting plants, but they will be taken on an exciting, and action-packed adventure with the help of a plot-twisting comic strip created by local Buffalo artist, Nate Phillips. Through the exhibit, follow the exciting vintage-inspired comic-book story of Mutation Invasion: Flesh-eating Flora featuring a series of large storyboard posters and get an up-close look at a variety of carnivorous plants. It shares the story of how our carnivorous plants have mutated into even bigger and scarier flesh-eating flora that put the Botanical Gardens’ horticulturists and pollinators at risk of being eaten alive! 

Larger-than-life sculptures, hungry plants, and an adventure of a lifetime all wrapped into one exhibition! Visitors will also learn more about carnivorous plants and how convergent evolution is the reason behind the existence of these “natural-born killers.”

Meet the artists! 

Melanie Fisher, Sculpture artist

Melanie Fisher grew up with three sisters in Rochester, New York. She received her
Bachelors of Science in Ceramics from the State University of New York at Buffalo State
College, a Post Baccalaureate certificate at Indiana University Southeast and a Masters
in Fine Arts degree in ceramics at Ohio University- also earning a certificate in Visual
Arts Management. She has shown in galleries in New York, Indiana and Ohio as well as
non-traditional spaces including the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens in 2019.
Melanie attended residencies in the US as well as Beijing, China and Ottawa, Canada.
She currently resides in Illinois where she teaches foundational and ceramic courses at
the university level as well as community classes in ceramics. When she is not teaching,
she works on her art practice in her glamorous basement studio!

Melanie Fisher
www.melaniefisherclay.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniefisher__/

Nate Phillips, Comic artist

Nate Phillips is a Rochester transPlant living in Buffalo! He couldn’t decide on a single medium so he is a freelance artist with his wet, webbed little flippers in all sorts of pockets of art, including (but not limited to) sculpting, painting, illustration, printmaking, animation, woodcarving, graphic novels, and fiber arts when he’s feeling saucy. No matter what medium though, they all share the commonality of his deep love and fascination with the natural world.

“I am chronically unserious and clinically compelled to try and manifest the funny little ideas that bubble up to the surface from within the murk inside my skull.” 

Nate Phillips
https://www.phillipsart.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_nattousan_