Todd McGrain’s “The Lost Bird Project” recognizes the tragedy of environmental destruction by immortalizing North American birds that have been driven to extinction, including the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parakeet, the Labrador Duck, the Great Auk, and the Heath Hen. The Berkshire Botanical Garden exhibition includes large-scale outdoor sculptures and an indoor gallery show (beginning August 10) featuring smaller-scale versions of the same sculptures, supplemented with original drawings and other related artwork. “These bronze sculptures are subtle, beautiful and hopeful reminders,” McGrain says. “The human scale of each outdoor sculpture elicits a physical sympathy. The smooth surface, like a stone polished from touch, conjures the effect of memory and time. I model these gestural forms to contain a taut equilibrium, a balanced pressure from outside and from inside — like a breath held in. As a group, they are melancholy yet affirming. They compel us to recognize the finality of our loss, they ask us not to forget them, and they remind us of our duty to prevent further extinction.”
Opening reception is Saturday, Aug. 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. For more information visit https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/leonhardt-galleries-2024
