GAMBIER, Ohio — The Gund Gallery at Kenyon College is pleased to announce “The Art of Trees,” an exhibition on view at the Gund from January 22 – April 11, 2021.
“The Art of Trees” reveals the many resonances, forms, and relationships of trees. Exploring themes of restoration and destruction, community and isolation, location and identity, and fragile temporalities, the 14 artists featured in the exhibition experiment with a range of mediums from painting to digital video, and even use trees as creative collaborators to express our essential and inseparable bond with these guardians of the earth.
“The Art of Trees” invites an interdisciplinary dialogue about personal, local, and global relationships to the environment, while simultaneously drawing attention to interactions between trees themselves, the communities they form, and their resilience despite human interference.
“The sense of community that trees uniquely inspire came to life through the collaborative curatorial endeavor of Gund Associates, Gallery and College staff, and Kenyon faculty,” says Dr. Jodi Kovach, curator of academic programs at the Gund Gallery and an important participant in the development of the exhibition. She continues, “By leveraging one another’s experiences with nature, modes of aesthetic appreciation, and perspectives on the environmental crisis, they have realized an exhibition that shows us how art can transform our ways of living with and in the natural world.”
The participating Gund Associates add, “We hope that this exhibition provokes discussion about the environment and invites a heightened collective consciousness about the intersection of community and place, near and far.”
In addition, the Gund Gallery is pleased to present “Nearby Voices.” This special section of “The Art of Trees” exhibition offers artistic reflections on the local landscape as a shared point of witness and imagines trees as archives of commonly held stories and experiences that branch across generations of a community. “Nearby Voices” bridges the gap between global and local environmental concerns by engaging with the art and voices of community members. It will also include the work of 2020-21 artist-in-residence Brian Harnetty, an interdisciplinary, socially and environmentally engaged artist who is working collaboratively with community members to create a “sonic map” of Gambier and surrounding Knox County.
“The Art of Trees” is curated by a committee of Gund Associates, Kenyon faculty, and Gund Gallery staff who worked together in a collaborative, multi-year process to bring this project to life.
Image:
High-resolution digital file is available upon request. Credit line: James Balog (American, b. 1952) Giant Sequoia, Stagg, 2001. Chromogenic print on Crystal Archive. 93 x 35.75 inches. Gund Gallery Collection; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Graham Gund ’63, 2015.2.2.
About the Gund Gallery Associates Program:
The Gund Gallery Associate Program offers Kenyon College students an opportunity to complement their formal liberal arts education with meaningful career experiences and informal learning opportunities. Working with museum professionals, Gund Gallery Associates are able to participate in all aspects of museum work including behind-the-scenes operations, curatorial research and planning, collection maintenance, and educational outreach. An extension of the classroom, the program integrates theory with practice by building and promoting collaboration and exchange between students, faculty, and community.
About the Gund Gallery:
The Gund Gallery is located on the beautiful 1,000-acre wooded campus of Kenyon College in the village of Gambier, Ohio just 45 miles from downtown Columbus. The Gund is dedicated to presenting 20th-21st century art and visual culture that reflects and informs the interdisciplinary mission of liberal arts education. Exhibitions and all public programs at the Gallery are free and open to the public.
Hours are Tuesday-Friday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday from 1-5 p.m.
To learn more visit http://www.thegundgallery.org/, call 740-427-5972, or email gundgallery@kenyon.edu.
Gund Gallery exhibitions and programs are supported, in part, by the Gund Gallery Board of Directors and the Ohio Arts Council.
Related link: http://www.thegundgallery.org/
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