Life Series (2026) marks a new body of work by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck that emerges directly from her lived practice of gardening — an ongoing process of coexisting, cultivating, and growing alongside natural systems with minimal control. Rooted in observation and collaboration with the environment, the paintings begin with intention but remain open to transformation through elemental forces such as water, shifting sunlight, and the changing temperature of the studio. These conditions mirror the rhythms and unpredictability of the nearby allotment gardens that inform the work, embedding each painting within a broader ecology of growth and change. For Tagada Hoffbeck, painting functions not as a fixed act of authorship, but as a process of co-creation with time, material, and environment. The works continue evolving beyond the moment they are made, often revealing themselves fully only the following day, once the materials have settled into their own becoming. Through this openness to chance and natural process, Life Series reflects on interdependence, temporality, and the quiet intelligence of living systems.
