John Newling: Nymans – A Language From The Garden

John Newling: Nymans – A Language From The Garden

A hand-printed, two colour screen print showing the full Nymans alphabet and its Latin equivalents. Deep orange and green inks screen-printed onto beautifully textured paper.

Birmingham-born artist John Newling (b. 1952) is a pioneer of public art with a social purpose. His 2020 Ikon exhibition Dear Nature, exemplified his strong environmental proposition, whilst pushing at the boundaries of what defines art.

Newling’s plea for a closer connection with, and greater understanding of, the natural world is evident in his 2016 development of a new alphabet based on leaves he found at Nymans, a National Trust garden in West Sussex. Pressed and photographed, he matched these plant forms to letters in the modern English alphabet.