Botanica Opens at the Center for Art and Theatre

January 11, 2017

Botanica by artist Lee Renninger will be presented in the University Gallery at the Center for Art and Theatre (CAT) from Jan. 9 to Feb. 3. A lecture and reception will be held on Jan. 19. The Artist Talk will begin at 5 p.m. in Visual Arts Building, room 2071, and the reception will follow at the CAT from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Botanica is a series of ceramic installations which explore the sense of play and lightheartedness inherent in a garden.

In 2013, Renninger began playing around with leftover parts from some of her past art installations. Laying them in stack and trying different configurations, she turned them into humorous, colorful landscapes that were so addictively fun, she was compelled to make more. The resulting pieces initiated the series, Botanica, a body of work that incorporates the rich color, detail and lavish qualities of the floral world to explore play and wonder – sometimes even in the darkest of contexts.

“I’m very excited about showing Renninger’s work,” said Jason Hoelscher, MFA, gallery director. “Her approach to ceramics is quite different from the way we typically understand ceramics. I think most people think of a particular object, whether a cup or a sculpture, but few think of ceramics as a field of objects – less as something specific to focus on relative to a background, and more of lots of things to focus on all at once. Renninger’s work is very exciting from a conceptual standpoint, and – of equal or greater importance – is lush, gorgeous and pleasing to the eye.”

All events are free and open to the public.