Though the embedded codes in Georgia O'Keefe's most famous "flower" paintings were not always readily detectable, arguably no artist had ever more vigorously sought to depict the primal connection between nature and womanhood. As they are the givers of life, it seemed to make perfect sense, surely.

Nearly a century later, American artist Jessica Lichtenstein revisits that connection with her riveting new Museum of Arts and Design exhibit 'Rewilding', a name taken from a contemporary method of restoring ecosystems to a state in which they become self-sustaining. The association seems urgent at this time, as our global environmental condition and the worldwide population of female-identifying people both face acute challenges in a 21st Century that has found humanity at troubling odds around what would simply seem like common goals - conservation, tolerance, etc. - for the good of everyone and everything.

The New York born, Yale educated Lichtenstein has long explored the metaphors and contradictions inherent in everything from the depiction of women in 20th Century modern art - Impressionism, Picasso - to Japanese mass-produced dolls, specifically of the anime genre. The cultural supremacy of social media, of course, has only cultivated even greater challenges to women's overall self-image, with distorting filters and unattainable, artificial standards of beauty having become the norm.

So the timing of 'Rewilding' could not be more poignant, as Lichtenstein visually and philosophically unifies femaleness and nature itself. She accomplishes this, actually, by tricking the eye - depicting opulent, thriving landscapes using thousands of digitally-rendered "nymphs," the lesser goddesses of Greek mythology, who were regarded as the very personifications of the natural world.

Elissa Auther, MAD’s Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, finds a clear intent in Lichtenstein's work.

“Jessica engages one of the most enduring subjects in Western art history and turns it inside out," she explains. "She adopts the visual language of seduction, ornament, and spectacle, then redirects it toward critique."

Indeed, a 70-foot-long sculpture titled 'Leave Your Thoughts Here' actually includes lockets engraved with texts from social media posts, which somberly remind of the impossible, unachieveable standards women are subjected to on a daily basis. It's biting satire acutely woven into what is otherwise a lavish presentation of the very essence of existence.

Yet the overall feeling one gets from viewing 'Rewilding' is one of liberation, of being freed from centuries of misguided and even intentionally specious depictions the fairer gender within the context of art. By becoming one with nature, women are elevated here to the rightfully eminent position of those who carry new life, and also bring it into the world.

"In 'Rewilding'," Auther observes, "the female body no longer serves as a passive motif. It becomes structure, landscape, and force. The result is an environment that is both visually sumptuous and conceptually precise, inviting viewers to reconsider who is looking, who is represented, and who holds power.”

'REWILDING' EXHIBITION TRAILER VIDEO