The Nature Conundrum

"The test of a first-rate intelligence," said F. Scott Fitzgerald, "is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."  Three exhibitions on view in San Francisco - Kara Maria at Anglim/Trimble, Claire Burbridge at Nancy Toomey and Isabella Kirkland at Hosfelt - test our ability to do so.  All deal with the natural world, but their approaches couldn't be more different. Taken together, they magnify and make urgent the question of how to regard nature now that the virtual life has all but eclipsed it.