Visitors to the Ackland Art Museum can experience a new, vibrant work from acclaimed artist Phaan Howng.

With “Against Nature,” the Baltimore-based creative drew inspiration from the Joris-Karl Huysmans 1884 novel of the same name to take an exaggerated look at plants and their relationship to humans. It’s a theme that has remained a through line in much of her work.

“It plays into this idea I have about an ‘optimistic post-apocalypse,’” Howng said. “If we all disappeared suddenly, the plants would thrive. They would be all right.”

“Against Nature” debuted at the Ackland in August and will be on display until July 11, 2027. Howng’s sense of optimism when tackling difficult or dark subjects has long been at the heart of her work, which has spanned more than a decade. Her art has appeared across the country, including the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Howng’s delicate balance of whimsy and exploration is what caught the attention of Lauren Turner, the Ackland’s associate curator for contemporary art and special projects. Turner found that dichotomy striking.

“Phaan’s practice reflects a wide-ranging curiosity that she pursues through research and collaborative learning,” Turner said. “She is an ideal artist for demonstrating to our visitors that creativity flourishes when paired with lifelong inquisitiveness and study.”

Howng’s love of art stems from an interest in people’s relationship with nature, in part because her father had a deep affection for plants and devotedly maintained their family garden. While she spent much of her school days drawing in class, she still wasn’t quite sure what type of career she could bring her artistry to.

“One day I was like, ‘I’m going to be a comic book artist,’ and then the other I was like, ‘I want to be a fashion designer,’” Howng said. “No matter what, I just knew I had to do something creative.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in painting from Boston University, Howng worked away from the art scene at the corporate level until deciding she wanted to pursue artwork full time in the summer of 2012. She eventually received a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

With “Against Nature,” Howng took her love of Victorian architecture and paired it with nature run amok. Neon reds, electric oranges, cerulean blues, bruised purples and a mint green tint combine to produce a piece that brings a vast array of colors to the exhibition space.

The level of detail is so granular that Howng found herself touching up the piece down to the very last minute.

“During the installation at the Ackland, I was still painting some of the leaves,” Howng said. “Lauren had to pull me away from it because they had to show it to the public.”

Howng has enjoyed forming a friendship with Turner, which started when the curator commissioned her piece in the summer of 2025. The two also collaborated on picking books featured in the gallery that visitors can pair with “Against Nature.”

“It’s an assembly of books and articles that Phaan found especially inspiring in her creative process,” Turner said. “For installations like this, we love to include extended opportunities for learning and thinking.”

While there are many opportunities for Ackland visitors to educate themselves on the themes and ideas that inspired “Against Nature,” Howng hopes the biggest takeaway is a simple one.

“As long as they’re happy and want to hang out with the piece, that’s amazing,” Howng said. “I don’t expect people to have a call to action or to try and interpret the work. If it gets their imagination to go somewhere, that’s all I care about.”