Boston Flora

Tag: art exhibit

  • Through April, 2021 – Over Time: Through Art, The Impact of Change in the Arboretum Landscape, Monotype Paintings by Ginny Zanger

    Five decades of weekly walks in the Arnold Arboretum find expression in Ginny Zanger’s art. “Rambling” gives her time to sketch and paint. Using the unique possibilities of her favorite medium—watercolor—and printmaking, Zanger explores, with articulate interpretations, the Arboretum’s rich botanical display. In this online show, most of her work is on Yupo, a silky, polypropylene paper that enhances the flow of the watercolor.

    After her undergraduate time at Harvard, Zanger moved from Cambridge to Jamaica Plain. On this side of the river, she has spent years thoroughly immersed in the education of the Arboretum.

    Part of that education revolved around a concern for the effect of global warming on plants. Inspired by climate change research conducted by Arboretum Fellow Catherine Chamberlain, Zanger brought an additional and ongoing focus to her work. She made the exception to her monotype paintings in her dramatic charcoal drawing, False Spring/Fatal Budburst, based on a photograph provided by researchers.

    Ginny Zanger is an award-winning painter and printmaker whose work can be seen at the Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, the Copley Society of Art, JP Open Studios, on her website, and on Instagram @ginnyzanger and @artgirlzboston. Zanger has been a strong presence in the Boston Art community through teaching, participating in an extensive number of solo and juried group exhibitions, and attending numerous artist’s residencies.

    To provide opportunities for Boston children to learn here, 50 percent of any sales from this exhibition will go to support the Arnold Arboretum’s important, ongoing educational programming with Boston Public Schools.                      

    All rights of the images reside with the artist. For more information on making a copy, or reusing an image, please send your request to arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu. For information on the work itself, or to inquire about purchasing art, please also send your request to arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu. We will put you in touch with the artist. To view, click HERE

  • Through Wednesday, March 21 – Yarnstorm

    This winter come experience an explosion of color at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. The global phenomenon known as yarnbombing is taking over Tower Hill! This collaborative community exhibit features trees, benches, statues, and more, decorated with colorful knitted and crocheted art, created by local artists, students, and volunteers. You will not want to miss this brilliant display. 

    WHAT IS YARNBOMBING?
    Yarnbombing or yarnstorming, often referred to as “graffiti knitting,” is a colorful art form that uses knitted and crocheted yarn instead of paint. During Yarnstorm, Tower Hill’s trees, benches, statues, and more will be adorned with bright, fantastical fiber artwork. This all-outdoors exhibit redefines walking in a winter wonderland. Come view over 25 unique pieces of art and over 2,000 giant pom poms! 

    This exhibit is included in general admission. Pre-purchased tickets, available here, are required for entry. When you arrive at Tower Hill, take a photo of our large outdoor exhibit map. Follow the Yarnstorm map to find all the fiber art pieces. The exhibit spans throughout our formal gardens and includes trees, benches, railings, and even our turtle fountains in the Winter Garden. At each art piece you will have an opportunity to learn more about the artist(s) who created it. Indoors, visitors can pop in to visit our Garden Shop, sub-tropical plant conservatories, and, on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, the café. 

  • Tuesday, September 8, 2020 – Monday, March 8, 2021 – Polly Thayer Starr: Nearer The Essence

    Polly Thayer Starr was an artist who lived beyond tidy definitions. Classically trained and well-spoken, she bounded onto the 1930s art scene, gaining fame for her formal portraits of Boston’s elite. With eyes and hands in constant motion, she recorded what she saw in sketches, collected and annotated poems torn from magazines, and wrote prolific letters and lectures. “I want to see with my whole being,” she declared, and “I seek what the form will reveal of essence, what the visible will tell me of the invisible.” As a result, her works beautifully present reality while also suggesting a world beyond. She invited viewers to look beyond the immediate to discover the pure magic in those uncertain realms outside of what we expect to see.

    This Fruitlands Museum exhibition, opening Tuesday, September 8, contains not only her paintings of nature and portraits, but also many studies and sketchbooks to reveal the artist’s search for beauty and truth. In addition to never-before exhibited archival materials, personal effects, such as a spectacularly carved desk from her studio, will be on display.

    Please note: dates are subject to change. Fruitlands is located at 102 Prospect Hill Road in Harvard, Massachusetts, and is a property of The Trustees of Reservations,

    Special thanks to the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust for their support of this exhibition.

  • Through September 7 – Studios Without Walls: See Change 2020

    The Emerald Necklace Conservancy invites you to enjoy the final days of Studios Without Walls: See Change 2020, hostd by Brookline Parks and Open Spaces, on the Riverway Park, next to the Longwood T Station in Brookline, through September 7. This exhibition of site responsive sculpture includes work by Gail Bos, Grey Held, Liz Helfer, Linda Hoffman, Janet Kawada, Bette Ann Libby, Madeleine Lord, Julie Lupien Nussbaum, Maria Ritz, Bob Shannahan, Marnie Sinclair, Allen Spivack, and Delanie Wise. The self guided tour and treasure hunt maps can be picked up in the red info boxes along Riverway Park, or visit www.studioswithoutwalls.org.

  • Friday, July 24 – Sunday, October 11 – Urban Ponds: Essential Ecosystem for the Enjoyment and Discovery of Nature

    Coming in late July, enjoy an online exhibition of the photography of Bruce Wilson brought to us by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

    In Shakespeare’s time, four elements were considered essential to life – earth, air, fire, water. In our own lifetime, we have discovered just how essential these elements are. The fourth, water, takes on the role of beauty, reflection, discovery, joy, even metaphor, in this exhibition by photographer, Bruce Wilson.

    Urban Ponds: Essential Ecosystems for the Enjoyment and Discovery of Nature through October 11, brings the aesthetic and elemental properties of water, within the circumscribed arena of the city, to the Arnold Arboretum. Three ponds in the Bradley Rosaceous Collection, Faxon, Dawson, and Rehder, are alive with fauna and flora, beckoning visitors who relish a connection to nature and water in an urban community.

    An integral component of the Arboretum’s ecosystem and landscape, these ponds (as well as in an urban pond in Newton)—named for former Arboretum staff—entice Wilson to bring his artistic eye to the discovery of shadows, reflections, and visitor enjoyment. His pond images complement the trees, emphasize the subtle or saturated colors of water, and capture interactions between visitors and scenes of rich pond life. Water is our source of life, its essence can calm and nurture each of us during this year when we look for nourishment of the body and spirit. Wilson has captured moments for all of us to share and savor.

    While a relative newcomer to serious photography, Wilson’s images belie his short history of working with the original “raw material” in the initiating image, and then his post-production work to bring out interesting geometry, color, or the overlooked beauty of some part of nature. He takes his cue from Frederick Law Olmsted “The root of all my good work is an early respect for, regard and enjoyment of scenery.”

    Visit http://arboretum.harvard.edu to view the exhibit.

  • Sunday, September 22 – Sunday, November 17 – American Society of Botanical Artists 22nd Annual International

    Launching American Society of Botanical Artist’s collaboration with Marin Art & Garden Center (MAGC), 30 Sir Frances Drake Boulevard in Ross, California, the 22nd Annual International is being held at the first West Coast venue for this exhibition opening September 22. The selection jury of Frank Almeda, Julie Bly DeVere, and Martha G. Kemp met in May, selecting 48 artworks from a competitive field of 230 entries. Artists included hail from the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, and the UK. Of the 45 artists included, eighteen of these have never before been included in an ASBA international exhibition.

    MAGC is an 11-acre historic property that is open to the public free of charge from dawn to dusk, seven days a week.  The Center is owned and operated by a nonprofit organization and supported by its community, including individuals, foundations, and businesses who make financial contributions and sponsor events and programs. The vision of MAGC is to preserve and share its beautiful historic site, while enriching our community through exploration and discovery in the arts and the natural environment. MAGC was founded in 1945 by leaders in the local conservation movement who wanted to save the property from development and foster a community engaged with the arts and gardens.  Their vision included a variety of arts and garden groups, some of which still participate in the life of MAGC today. With its gracious gardens, specimen trees, and water features, MAGC is a welcoming environment for visitors to enjoy and a destination for learning.  

    For more information visit https://www.asba-art.org/exhibitions/22nd-annual-international

    Prunus avium, Cherries, Watercolor, copyright Sharron O’Neil

  • Friday, May 31, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Opening Reception: Shimmering Flowers

    Berkshire Botanical Garden warmly welcomes Nancy Lorenz on Friday, May 31, 5 – 7 p.m. for an opening reception of its ART/GARDEN exhibition Shimmering Flowers: Nancy Lorenz’s Lacquer and Bronze Landscapes. The reception will include a demonstration presented by floral designer and ikebana master Kan Asakura.  

    A New York City based artist, Nancy Lorenz incorporates techniques from traditional Asian crafts, drawing on her years spent living in Japan and a thirty-five-year career as a noted contemporary abstract painter. For Shimmering Flowers, Ms. Lorenz has created gilt and mother-of-pearl paintings that complement the Garden’s collection of flora and will also present table-top landscape vessels in cast bronze, creating a dialogue with the galleries and their surrounding gardens. Throughout the summer, these vessels will display arrangements created by a rotating group of talented floral designers whose interpretations of the art are reflected in unique displays of flowers and other natural materials.

    Gallery hours June 1 – September 30:  Daily, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Free with Garden admission.
     

    Shimmering Flowers is made possible through the generous assistance of the Dorothea L Leonhardt Foundation, Inc.

  • Saturday, May 18, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Opening Reception, Drawn to Paint

    Artist Paul Olson has been discovering the nuances of the Arnold Arboretum’s collections since he first passed through its gates in 2011. A landscape painter for decades, Olson explores the grounds with sketchbook in hand, typically in the early morning hours. His goal is to be unencumbered by any agenda and open to what the light of the day presents. In 2012, he had an exhibition at the Arnold Arboretum entitled Drawn to Woods. The expressive ink drawings in that show were all completed en plein air – on site in open air/ In this new show, running May 10 – July 21 in the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum, Olson brings his on-site observations into the painting studio to work in color, reflecting on his real world experience, but searching for that delightful sense of childlike discovery found in nature. These works on paper and canvas also feature paintings of bonsai from the Bonsai and Penjing collection. Paul Olson is an instructor at his alma mater, Rhode Island School of Design, and also teaches in the illustration department at Massachusetts College of Art. He has exhibited in various group and solo shows in the United States. He also makes pottery for bonsai and is an avid bonsai cultivator. The opening reception takes place May 18 from 1 – 3 and is free and open to the public.

  • Friday, February 8 – Sunday, May 5 – Transitions: Winter Into Spring (Opening Reception Saturday, February 16, 1:00 pm – 3:00pm)

    Chris Morgan’s goal as a photographer is to evoke the emotions he feels when he views patterns and textures in nature, in the shapes of trees, and in the movements of birds. He brings details to life. The Arnold Arboretum, with its rich collections of flora and fauna, has been a major interest of his for over fifteen years, especially during blizzards, when dramatic photo opportunities appear. Digital photography, which offers a happy marriage of the arts and the sciences, lets him explore larger-format photography in creative ways through digital panorama techniques.

    Morgan has photographed on five continents for over forty years; however, is currently to be found, year-round, photographing in the Arboretum.

    In addition to his photographic work, Morgan appraises rare, early computers, is a computer consultant, an author, puzzle designer, musician, and magician. He is also a Lewis Carroll scholar, and has written five books. He has spoken extensively about Lewis Carroll at Harvard University’s Houghton Library, the Boston Athenaeum, and other libraries and universities around the country.

    His photographic exhibit Transitions: Winter Into Spring will be displayed in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum February 8 – May 5, and there will be an opening reception on Saturday, February 16 from 1 – 3. Free and open to the public. For hours, visit https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/art-shows/

  • Now through Sunday, July 15 – John Sabraw: Renewal

    John Sabraw’s colorful and highly textured paintings celebrate connectivity to nature by examining chroma and structure in micro-macro relationships. These works of art utilize pigments generated by remediating streams polluted with coal mine runoff called acid mine drainage. View them in the Alice Milton Gallery at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, May 15 – July 15, free with admission to the garden.

    We observe natural systems in action and see that they are irregular; their structures form under the influence of natural law without conscious ideas of what they will become. Systems like these occur at macro and micro levels in nature and it is we as humans who seek understanding; the laws of physics that determine the flow of great river deltas also affect the patterns we observe in leaves and tree bark, and even water with some added pigments can flow and set into beautiful imagery reflective of these natural phenomena. The result is complex, luminous, mysterious paintings that strike a beautiful balance between controlled and organic processes.

    Artist John Sabraw was born in Lakenheath, England. An activist and environmentalist, Sabraw’s paintings, drawings and collaborative installations are produced in an eco-conscious manner, and he continually works toward a fully sustainable practice. He collaborates with scientists on many projects, and one of his current collaborations involves creating paint and paintings from iron oxide extracted in the process of remediating polluted streams.

    Sabraw’s art is in numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, the Elmhurst Museum in Illinois, Emprise Bank, and Accenture Corp. Sabraw is represented in Chicago by Thomas McCormick.

    Sabraw is a Professor of Art at Ohio University where he is Chair of the Painting + Drawing program, and Board Advisor at Scribble Art Workshop in New York. He has most recently been featured in TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, and Great Big Story.

    Image result for John Sabraw Renewal