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Botanica:
Contemporary Art and the World of Plants

January 26 - March 25, 2001
Botanica presents and interprets artworks in many different media by a large and varied group of fifty-eight contemporary artists, primarily from the United States, but also including representatives from Sweden, Canada and England. These artists consistently and seriously utilize forms, concepts, and systems from the plant world, in order to express a variety of ideas about how botanical entities are meaningful to us. They alternately use botany and plants as a point of departure, as metaphors, as a primary subject, as an art material, and as a means of exploring our relationship with nature in a world overridden by technology and industry. As can be expected, many works in the exhibition exploit the undeniable beauty of plant forms. Others allude to the practices of science, natural history and environmentalism, while still others derive meaning from references to historical and cultural associations with plants.
Robert Kushner
"Artichoke Apotheosis" 1995
72"x72"
oil, arcylic,glitter, gold leaf on canvas
Sue Johnson
"Quad Wing Waspnest Tail Oriole" 1998
11"x14"
Gouche on paper
In its combination of artists of international reputation together with those whose work is known only within regional circles, Botanica acknowledges the universal nature of its theme, and the fact that art of high quality is produced in regional as well as urban centers. The exhibition has a great appeal to lovers of art and plants, science educators and their students of all ages, and individuals involved in environmental causes.
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