NEW BOOK: 2025 and the myth of the “artist” is still alive and kicking, pushing talented, creative people into bad decisions about their careers and lives.

On the third day of the third moon month, after a six- thousand-year wait, the deities residing in the palace of the Jade Emperor and his wife, Xi Wangmu, feast on the peaches of immortality. The peach tree grows in Xi’s garden, in China’s fabled Kunlun Mountains, and it only covers

I was interviewed by Yvonne Volkart on speculative approaches to plant intelligence. Read the full interview on INSERT at the link below. #art #plants #posthumanism #plantintelligence

Discussing 'Lawn' in Montreal for Rewilding Arts Collective. Thanks for the enthusiasm and support. Ditching the lawn and reconnecting with the soil is within everyone's reach. My book advocates for a quite revolution in which no patch of land is too small to make a difference! #rewilding #plants

By 1910, Wassily Kandinsky, one of the undisputed masters of early modern painting, had embarked on an uncharted creative journey: a radical departure from the rules and prescriptions of Western figurative art. The Russian avant-garde artist had

🌿 PLANT INTELLIGENCE Symposium: Learning Like a Plant, HGK Basel, with keynotes from @giovannialoi.bsky.social & @philosalon.bsky.social Info & Schedule, Oct 31-Nov 2: plants-intelligence.ch/save-the-dat... Livestream: live.hgk.fhnw.ch/plants-intel... Sometimes, not doing anything is also doing 🌿

If you're in Milan on November 4th, join us at Casa degli Artisti (18:45) where I will present 'Botanical Revolutions' followed by a discussion with Curator Gabi Scardi. More info at the link in bio. #art #plants #posthumanism #arthistory #botanicalrevolutions

A touch of frost in the garden this morning... #chicago #frost

If you're in Basel next week come to the 'Plants_Intelligence Symposium' organized by Yvonne Volkart, October 31st - November 2nd, 2025. My Keynote address focusses on the lawn... Exciting roster of speakers including my dear colleague Michael Marder.

Nothing I have ever worked on matches the delicate sophistication of this incredible book of Lee Kwang-Ho's paintings of cacti. The paper quality, the image reproduction, the outstanding attention to details. It features my essay 'Through the Skin of Cacti' in both English and Korean.

Thank you Ragdalians for following me on a rollercoaster talk about Botanical Revolutions: How Plants Changed the Course of Art. What a night! #botanicalrevolutions #art #plants #getty

It's happening... and the sumac knows it first... #sumac #autumn #red

A wonderful afternoon with botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer at Brushwood Center. Her work on plants has had a defining influence on my thinking and writing -- I was chuffed to finally meet her in person and talk. Today, Robin launched a new initiative called "Plant, Baby, Plant"

... then came the thunderstorm that took summer away once and for all... #summer #garden #plants

Thanks 'BorderCrossing Magazine' for inviting me to write a lengthy reflection on how 25 years of animal revolutions in art have forever changed the contemporary creative landscape. In this essay I celebrate the pioneering work of artists like Ken Rinaldo, Kira O'Reilly, and Anika Yi who,

Join me in Montreal next week, on October 10th, at the Maison du développement durable for a discussion of my new book 'Lawn' with Dr. Emma Despland. This is will be an evening exploring the creative, ecological, and social possibilities of working with plants, gathering artists, activists,

Deep in preparation for my keynote at the Green Heresies Symposium at the Neubauer Collegium next Friday & Saturday! Thrilled to be in conversation with artists and scholars who are reimagining our relationships with plants.

This Sunday, at 4pm Italian time, I will contribute (remotely) to the ambitious and very timely panel 'Thinking hands constructing our collective response to the climate crisis' moderated by Nicolas Panelli at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. #architecturevenicebiennale #climate #art

How nasturtium always glows like amber during sunset... #septembergarden #nasturtium #sunset #orange #flowers #garden

Strangers at Home: Plant-Human Migrations A conversation with Yota Batsaki and Giovanni Aloi Thursday, September 18, 2025 12:00 - 1:00 pm Central US Time We think of plants as rooted to the spot, but they travel constantly through their adaptations or the actions of humans.

It’s always special to encounter one of your books in the world. But stumbling upon it in New York City, on the shelves of two iconic bookstores like Rizzoli and Strand, feels particularly meaningful.

Dr. Giovanni Aloi: The Lawn – Nothing to do With Nature is an interesting interview of @giovannialoi.bsky.social in Landezine about his new book, Lawn. "Gardens and green areas of all types should be regarded as perpetually belonging to all earthlings." landezine.com/dr-giovanni-...

Another stunning nighttime bloom. The ethereal flower of the epiphyllum cactus only lasts one night and will have withered by dawn. Glad I caught it! The fragrance is remarkably similar to angel's trumpet.... #cactus #bloom #queenofnight #flower

This year I’ve spotted a record number of tussock caterpillars on milkweed along the North Shore. They share the monarchs’ coloration but are much hairier. The bristles can trigger blisters on contact. So look, don’t touch. Still, they’re very cute and, for some reason, usually hang around in pairs.

I was recently interviewed by Urška Škerl of Landezine Magazine about 'Lawn'. Read the full interview at the link below. "Škerl: In the concluding chapter, From the Buffers, Back to the Garden, you emphasize liminality as an uncharted space with maximum potential and references a range of artists,

The past few nights have been unseasonably cold in Chicago for the end of August. Nighttime temps in the low 50s mean my hibiscuses shiver disgruntled. But one plant loves the cool nighttime breezes...

An everyday reminder that resilience often reveals itself through imperfection. I came across this cabbage white on my morning walk through the garden, while checking the plants after last night’s storm. Its tattered wings stand as traces of endurance: a testament to a life well lived. #butterflies

I'm honored and excited to speak at the Plant Stories #4 event organized by the Center for Art and Urbanistics in Berlin I will join remotely Leslie Garcia and Ivana Milos for a conversation on plants in contemporary art. More information below and on the website.

Joys of researching... to come upon this mesmerizing nighttime watercolor by Paul Nash titled 'The three trees in the night' (1913) and read this quote in which the artist says that painted trees: "as tho they were human beings... with their sensuous but mysterious personalities...

How did my presentation on Botanical Revolutions for the New York Botanical Garden go? Not bad judging by one of the comments left in the chat... this made my day. With gratitude. #art #plants #botanicalrevolutions #nybg

Earlier this year, I was nvited by Berry/Campbell Gallery in NYC to write about the garden paintings of Eric Dever. The artist and I embarked on a conversation about painting, gardening, and the temporalities they share. An excerpt of which appears in the current issue of Antennae,

One of my favorite works of art I discuss in Botanical Revolutions: Aubert-Henri-Joseph Parent’s Carved Relief (1789), made from limewood. A striking example of late 18th-century craftsmanship. The panel brings together an impressive variety of plants including poppies, roses, lilac, lilies-

Loving my nasturtium this year! Apparently, during WWII, nasturtium seeds were used as a replacement for peppercorn. #garden #nasturtium #flowers #summer

It's hibiscus galore season again and Luke's Dark Inferno is back in full force.... #hibiscus #flower #summer

Antennae Issue 67 - Gardening #2 is now online! Download free at www.antennae.org.uk This issue of Antennae, the one that preceded it, and the one that will follow are dedicated to gardening as a creative process. We need to take gardens very seriously as legitimate

Join me on Tuesday, August 12th, 6pm EST (zoom) as I will present my new book Botanical Revolutions: How Plants Changed the Course of Art for the New York Botanical Garden. Reserve your spot at the link in below! #plants #art #newbook #botanicalrevolutions #arthistory #posthumanism #ecology

The recording of the talk I gave at Harvard in May, as part of the 'Thinking with Plants and Fungi: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature', is now available online. In this talk I sketch out the baselines for a concept that

Do you like broad beans? The ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was reportedly captivated by the plant’s curious structure and the firm yet tender consistency of its seeds. He observed its hollow stems and speculated that they might serve as conduits between the world

There's 8 black swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel!! Hurray!! #blackswallowtail #caterpillars #butterflies #insects

What a joy to be back on The Roundtable Perspective to talk about 'Botanical Revolutions'! This aired on NPR Lake Shore a couple of weeks ago. Not yet available on their youtube channel but it will be soon. Meanwhile you can watch it at the link below.

Caught this baby katydid eating pollen off my lion tamer hibiscus... I had a chat about what can be eaten and what can't... I think I was pretty clear. #katydid #hibiscus #gardenlife #garden

What a joy to come across this extraordinary painting by Eliot Hodgkin while researching for a new book. The work is titled 'St Paul's and St Mary Aldermanbury from St Swithin's Churchyard (1945).

News of Materialities has spread all the way to China! @rbeachy.bsky.social #driehausmuseum #materialities #exhibition #art #posthumanism #anthropocene

I had the great pleasure of visiting the stunning Rachel Ruysch exhibition in Toledo, in the company of the ever-wonderful @JennyKendler. What an extraordinary selection of still-life paintings. A feast of botanical, entomological, and reptilian splendor

"Lawn" is a new, easily readable critical plant studies book by author Giovanni Aloi @giovannialoi.bsky.social "...beneath the lawn lies a stratification of intricate ideological and ecological issues that over time have come to define our conception of nature." www.bloomsbury.com/us/lawn-9798...

I had the pleasure of speaking with Miranda Melcher of the New Books Network about Lawn. We covered a lot, from ecological grief to the politics of green space, the challenges involved in rewilding, and why the lawn might just be the most hellish landscape of the mind.

🌿 Last plant + art giveaway of the month! To wrap up June, I’m sharing something special: the now out-of-print catalogue for Lucian Freud: Herbarium, the exhibition I curated in 2022 at the Garden Museum in London.

Wonderful afternoon at the Driehaus Museum signing copies of Botanical Revolutions! There's one signed copy left at the museum shop... just saying... #botanicalrevolutions #art #plants #books

🌈 More queering of nature for June! My latest essay, “Queer Ecologies Without Nature: Beyond the Heteronormative Kingdom of Taxidermy Dioramas,” has just been published in the zoological journal Holotipus and it’s available to download for free at the link below.

They may be a year old, but they’re still relevant as ever. 🌈🌿 Pride Month is also a time to reconnect with the natural world through the vibrant, transformative lens of queer ecologies.