Haley Mellin at the Museo Novecento
Until October 29, 2025, the first solo exhibition in Italy by the American artist, a pioneer of sustainable art, can be seen in Florence
Siamo Natura is the title of the exhibition marking the arrival in Florence of internationally renowned artist and environmentalist Haley Mellin. Through Oct. 29, 2025, the Museo Novecento is hosting an immersive exhibition that interweaves painting, drawing and ecological activism in a journey curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stefania Rispoli.
Renowned for her ethereal painting and deep connection to the environment, Haley Mellin paints in the open air, in the heart of the forests she helps to safeguard. Her works depict real landscapes threatened by climate change, made with sustainable materials such as gouache, watercolor, charcoal, and even coffee.
Haley Mellin, Siamo Natura Installation Views (2025), Courtesy of the artist and Museo Novecento. Ph Ela Bialkowska Each painting comes from slow and careful observation, often made on a small scale to reduce environmental impact, and accompanied by geographic coordinates or references to endangered species, as in the case of the work dedicated to the Golden Lion Tamarin. "Painting, for me, is about preserving a particular state of mind - a way of being in and with nature. It is a homage, not an alteration. It is time, observation, study, listening while nature speaks," the artist says.
In 2017, Mellin founded the nonprofit Art into Acres, which has mobilized artists to support the protection of more than 30 million hectares of primary forests by partnering with indigenous and local communities and art-world-led fundraisers. Within the exhibition, an entire room chronicles the ‘collaborative activism’ of Art into Acres. For the first time, the nonprofit environmental initiative is presented in a museum setting, recounting the many projects, completed or still in progress, carried out through collaboration with artists, collectors, galleries, museums, conservationists, administrators and communities. Prominent among the works on display is Parable by the duo rosenclaire. Through Art into Acres, the sale of the work has contributed to the protection of hundreds of thousands of acres of land.
Haley Mellin, Siamo Natura Installation Views (2025), Courtesy of the artist and Museo Novecento. Ph Ela Bialkowska Siamo Natura also stands out for its sustainable approach to production and exhibition design: optimized transportation, ROKBOX reusable crates, recycled paper for information materials, and frames certified by One Tree Planted, which planted a tree for each one. In collaboration with the Museo Novecento, Haley Mellin also initiated the calculation of carbon emissions related to the exhibition and promoted educational initiatives on sustainability, continuing its efforts already implemented with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and documenta.
Side projects include the regeneration of the Leopoldine Garden, which opened on the same day as the exhibition. Mellin contributed to the planting of about 300 native species in the museum's cloister, transforming it into a green space that captures CO₂, restores coolness to the city and recovers the garden's original historical function.