Prickly, Tender and Steamy: Artists in the Hothouse
Reception: Saturday, April 12, 1–4PM
Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx, announces the opening of a new exhibition this spring, Prickly, Tender and Steamy: Artists in the Hothouse, celebrating the fifth year of the Winter Workspace program. Each winter, Glyndor Gallery is transformed into studio spaces for New York-area artists to develop new work using the exceptional natural setting and greenhouses of Wave Hill as sources conducive to the creative process. The Winter Workspace program opens Wave Hill’s site to artists. As they show elsewhere the work that they have created here, they become ambassadors for Wave Hill, conveying the inspiration and sense of discovery that the garden engenders. Prickly, Tender and Steamy, on view April 8 – May 18, is also the third exhibition in Glyndor Gallery to focus on a particular area of the garden. Previous shows have shed light on Wave Hill’s tree collection and the Wild Garden.
Curator Gabriel de Guzman says, “The artistry of Wave Hill’s gardeners—their care and display of the plants in each greenhouse— is akin to the artistic process, with its concern for color, composition, expression, texture, space and overall aesthetics. Each gardener has a particular approach and technique, and artists who step into the gardener’s creative setting cannot help but respond to it.” For gardener Susannah Strazzera, who has worked in several areas of the garden over her 11 years at Wave Hill, “Horticulture is really a combination of art, science and grunt work.”
The living collections in Wave Hill’s Marco Polo Stufano Conservatory and T. H. Everett Alpine House have been an inspiration to the 13 artists whose work is featured in this exhibition, all of whom participated in the Winter Workspace program. Participating artists Manuel Acevedo, Gabriela Albergaria, Carrie Beckmann, Susan Benarcik, Matthew Burcaw, Asuka Hishiki, Nick Lamia, Lina Puerta, Naomi Reis, Anne-Katrin Spiess, Linda Stillman, James Walsh and Marion Wilson represent a wide variety of mediums. Taken together, the works on view offer visitors multiple ways to observe the living collection in the greenhouses.
Susan Benarcik’s close-cropped photographs compare plant forms with the structural elements of the greenhouse, the growth of moss on the wall, the textures of aerial roots and tendrils reaching toward water, air and sunlight. Carrie Beckmann’s watercolors, painted directly from
observation, capture the color and vibrancy of plants in the Palm and Succulent Houses. Asuka Hishiki and Linda Stillman kept daily diaries of their time in the Winter Workspace. Stillman created a compilation of drawings by rubbing flower petals onto watercolor paper. To document her residency, each day Hishiki chose a plant in the greenhouse and drew a small part of it, a choice that proved challenging given the wide variety of plants. Marion Wilson painted miniature representations of plant life in the Conservatory on glass slides, specifically Spanish moss in the Tropical House and sedum in the Succulent House. Manuel Acevedo produced flipbooks that include images and poems that respond to and animate Wave Hill’s exotic plant collection. Naomi Reis created mixed-media collages that portray the lush vegetation and investigate the tension and otherworldliness of keeping natural plants in the artificial climate of a greenhouse. Gabriela Albergaria was enamored with the leaves of a hanging plant, Anthurium wendlingeri, depicting its natural life cycle with one leaf suspended in time and frozen in the process of decay.
The Succulent House has proven especially appealing to artists. Anne-Katrin Spiess was “magnetically attracted to the succulents.” She decided to photograph and “interview” selected species; the plants’ responses address their appearance, as well as their adaptive traits. Nick Lamia creates a site-specific installation under the Glyndor staircase, as well as a series of graphite drawings of individual succulents, calling the plants “survivors” for thriving under harsh conditions. Matthew Burcaw incorporates images of Lithops or “living stones” into his ink drawings, which depict a fragmented composition of the landscape in and around Wave Hill. Lina Puerta, attracted to the strangeness and fleshiness of the cacti and succulent collection, chose plants that had qualities that resemble limbs and body parts, drawing the connection between the appearance of the human form and plant life.
James Walsh found the plants in the Alpine House “romantic and heroic, growing up there on the mountaintops.” His wall drawings combine image and text, focusing on alpine plants that he associates with pioneering scientific figures Charles Darwin and Carl Linnaeus.
An illustrated catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition and available at Glyndor Gallery. It will feature entries on each artist and interpretive texts by the Wave Hill curators. Recognizing the tremendous work of the gardeners and their efforts to keep the greenhouses and plant collections looking so attractive, the gardeners Jen Shovlin (Tropical House), Harnek Singh (Succulent House), Susannah Strazzera (Alpine House) and William Wallace (Palm House) were interviewed by the curators and asked to share their ideas and vision as a counterpoint to the work that the Winter Workspace artists have made. Excerpts of these interviews are included in the catalogue.
Exhibition-related Public Events
Celebrate spring this Target Free weekend as we welcome the season with nature and nature-inspired art-making for all. Join Glyndor Gallery exhibiting artist Linda Stillman at the Family Art Project. Saturday afternoon, set off on a family walk to look for signs of spring. Experience the excitement of the season with exhibiting artist Nick Lamia at a collective art project Sunday afternoon. Meet the artists at a reception Saturday afternoon.
What: Hello Spring! Weekend
When: Family Art Project, Sat, Sun, April 12, 13 10AM–1PM
Exhibition Reception & Artists Talk, Sat, April 12, 1–4PM
Family Walk: Signs of Spring, Sat, April 12, 1PM
Collaborative Art Project, Sun, April 13, 1–4PM
Fees: All events are free and admission to the grounds is free all weekend thanks to the generous support of Target.
SUPPORT FOR THE VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED BY the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The New York Community Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the Cathy and Stephen Weinroth Commissioning Fund for the Arts. Support for the Family Art Project is provided by the Sally and Gilbert Kerlin Endowment Fund at Wave Hill for Environmental Science and Nature Education, the National Endowment for the Arts and Target. The Institution’s operations are made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
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