Marya Triandafellos

Fleur-ish

“Fleur-ish” features post-photographic work by Artist-in-Residence Marya Triandafellos. The exhibition includes AI-generated images that consider cultivation as both an act and condition of flourishing. Drawing upon research into native New York flora, images of plants are created through a generative process using AI technology. The hyper-idealized expressions are shaped through further digital manipulation culminating in artworks that contemplate how technological constructions of nature reflect our human desires.

“…Flourishing is framed not as a natural guarantee, but as an ongoing practice shaped by participation. The work acknowledges that even at monumental scale, it may go unseen. That possibility is part of its meaning, reflecting the difficulty of cultivating awareness within contemporary life and the effort required to truly notice what sustains us…”
— Marya Triandafellos

Marya Triandafellos is a digital artist based in New York, NY working at the intersection of technology, art, and public interaction. Marya’s experience spans design, video, and digital art. Public art projects include artworks for the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, NJ, NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program at Washington Market Park, the Oculus at the World Trade Center, and American Museum of Natural History. Her work has been presented in gallery exhibitions and art fairs including ChaShaMa storefront(NYC), Frieze (NYC), Superfine Art Fair (Miami and New York), and The Other Art Fair (New York and Brooklyn).

About the Work

Fleur-ish considers cultivation as a fundamental human act and a condition of flourishing. Developed as a site-specific installation for JJ Walker Park in the West Village, in association with NYC Parks Art in the Parks, the work presents native flowering plants at a monumental scale, interrupting habitual movement along Hudson Street. At a moment when the natural world is increasingly diminished or encountered only in mediated forms, the series reflects on how humans relate to nature as something continuously shaped. Fleur-ish positions cultivation as both an expression of human nature underlying flourishing and a pathway forward through conscious engagement.

Focusing on New York native flowers grounds the work in place and history. These plants predate the city and persist within it, carrying traces of stewardship that extend beyond the present moment. While the land may feel “ours” now, it holds layered histories of care, displacement, and transformation. Fleur-ish treats native flowers as living markers of context, suggesting that nothing flourishes in isolation. Parks function as cultivated commons, reminding us that urban life without access to tended nature profoundly diminishes collective well-being.

Each composition is structured around three dominant foreground blooms set against a quieter field of surrounding forms. This hierarchy echoes familiar social dynamics, where a visible few are elevated while the larger collective remains unacknowledged. While the primary figures draw attention, they could not exist without the supporting masses. In this way, the flowers operate as metaphors reflecting how prominence is sustained by systems that are often overlooked. Cultivation is revealed as a collective condition rather than an individual achievement.

The works are created through a process the artist refers to as Cultivated Botanical Abstraction. Beginning with research into native New York flora, selected plants are created through iterative generative processes using AI. These hyper-idealized expressions are further shaped through digital composition. What remains recognizable is the bloom itself, removed from its natural environment and intensified through human intervention. Botanical accuracy is intentionally exchanged for emotional presence. Cultivation becomes both subject and method, mirroring how humans have historically shaped nature to reflect our requirements.

Installed along the west edge of JJ Walker Park facing Hudson Street, the works operate as a visual disruption. Their scale is designed to stop viewers mid-stride, redirecting attention from routine movement toward awareness. Positioned at the park’s edge, the installation extends the park’s reach beyond its interior, engaging those who pass by as well as those who enter. Fleur-ish aligns with the park’s guiding intention to cultivate flourishing across a diverse community, asserting that access to beauty, care, and attention should not be limited to a curated few.

Flourishing is framed not as a natural guarantee, but as an ongoing practice shaped by participation. The work acknowledges that even at monumental scale, it may go unseen. That possibility is part of its meaning, reflecting the difficulty of cultivating awareness within contemporary life and the effort required to truly notice what sustains us.

—Marya Triandafellos