NAPLES, FLA.- Naples Botanical Garden opened its 2020-21 season, Roots: Power of the Unseen, with an ambitious 11-month exhibition of artist Steve Tobin’s acclaimed “Roots” sculptures. Cast in steel and bronze, the works featured in Steve Tobin: Nature Underground pay homage to the wonderfully complex world that lies beneath the soil. Alternating between intricate replicas and streamlined renderings, Tobin’s sculptures challenge viewers to consider the outsized role roots play in sustaining all life on Earth. The works seem to dance in their spaces, spiraling upward to create elegant forms as well as ever-changing shadows.

Guests will discover them throughout the Garden—simultaneously rising out of the landscape and blending into it with perfect harmony. Tobin says the pieces are experiential; they are meant to be walked through, interacted with, and explored from all angles.

“Because they’re so open, these pieces activate the space between the viewer, the sculptures and beyond,” he says.

The exhibition runs through Sept. 6, 2021. It is free for Members and included in Garden admission.

The Garden is offering a free audio tour to accompany the exhibit, as well as programming that celebrates plants, changes the way people look at trees and nature, and inspires visitors to care for and appreciate the natural world.

Contemporary sculptor Steve Tobin’s vast repertoire includes works in glass, clay, bronze, and steel. He explores natural forms and cites nature as his earliest influence, one that continues to inform his work. His creations have been shown internationally at such venues as the American Museum of Natural History; the Page Museum/La Brea Tar Pits and Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History; Retretti Art Center, Finland; San José Museum of Art, San José, California; Installation, Cheekwood Estate and Gardens, Nashville, Tennessee; United States Botanic Gardens, Washington, D.C.; and Jing’An International Sculpture Project (JISP), Shanghai, China.

The sculptor is renowned for his “Trinity Root” sculpture cast from the stump and roots of a large sycamore tree that shielded St. Paul’s Church from the collapsing Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks.