MUSEO DEL NOVECENTO – FLORENCE
June 24, 2025 – October 29, 2025
MUSEO DEL NOVECENTO – FLORENCE
June 24, 2025 – October 29, 2025
The Museo Novecento is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in an Italian institution by American artist and environmentalist Haley Mellin, recognized for her commitment to painting and environmental conservation. The exhibition titled “Siamo Natura”, curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stefania Rispoli, will be open to the public from Tuesday, June 24th until Wednesday, October 29th and will have a press preview on Monday, June 23rd at 11:00 a.m. at the Museo Novecento.
Haley Mellin is the founder of the non-profit initiative Art into Acre, which has mobilized artists to support the protection of over 30 million hectares of forests. primary, thanks to collaborations with indigenous and local communities and fundraising led by the art world. These efforts have contributed to the formation of National Parks, Indigenous and Municipal Protected Areas, and community conservation lands—spaces dedicated to the protection of biodiversity and the legal recognition of lands for local historic communities. For the first time, Haley Mellin’s work with Art into Acres is presented to the public as a form of artistic activism, inseparable from her painting and graphic practice.
In parallel to her commitment to land conservation, Haley Mellin creates works of the very landscapes she helps protect. Her paintings are characterized by an attention to detail guided by a light, almost evanescent hand, which highlights the richness and natural variety of the environments depicted. “Art is the preservation of a concept, a way of being, a story, a testimony, a legacy,” the artist reflects. “Painting, for me, is the preservation of a particular state of mind—a way of being in and with nature. It’s a tribute, not an alteration; it’s time, observation, study, listening as nature speaks.”
The Florentine exhibition brings together her works and environmental projects, offering a profound reflection on their interconnectedness. The exhibition highlights the artist’s commitment to directly documenting protected landscapes through small-format paintings made outdoors, working seasonally in outdoor studios, and reducing emissions by avoiding electricity, heating, and cooling. “Land conservation, when done well, is invisible,” says Haley Mellin. “No trace remains of your passage: life continues to flow as it has for millennia.“
In parallel with the exhibition, Haley Mellin has begun a collaboration with the Museo Novecento to create the Giardino delle Leopoldine, a natural regeneration project that will include the planting of approximately 300 native plants or plants associated with the Tuscan landscape in the museum’s historic cloister. These plants are the result of research into the original layout and uses of the garden, a place of contemplation and dialogue, of silence and fragrance. The Giardino delle Leopoldine will open on June 24.
