Wonder – Renwick Gallery – Washington – Sculpture / Installation

La note de Plac'Art: ►►►►►

For its re-opening, the Renwick Gallery is hitting the right note, with Wonder, a show that is not only compelling artistically but attractive to the general public, with a bit of a feel of Arsenale at the Venice Bienale.

The building itself is interesting, and finally getting work that makes it worth a trip. It has been brought to the edge by little touches, such as the sliding and irregular red carpet to reach the second floor. With Wonder, there is little space lost or time lost in counters, welcome desks etc., the viewers enters directly the art work.

With a total of 7 artists, the show is well contained. What brings them together is the monumentally of the works, and their direct connect to the space. Another thread between the works is the use of natural materials, or the proximity to nature itself, obvious in the work by Patrick Dougherty (Shindig, 2015), who creates man-sized bird nests with large tree branches; in the decorative piece by Jennifer Angus (In the midnight garden, 2015) where an harmonious assembly of insects creates tradition

al patterned wall paper; in order works, columns of paper cards emerge as grotto-like stalactites (Untitled by Tara Donovan), threads of fabric decompose light (Plexus A1 by Gabriel Dawe), or giant pieces of fabric reflect light (1.8 by Janet

Echelman). A dead-tree, all sculpted in wood (Middle Fork by John Grade), dominates another room, inviting us to abstract from the actual tree into the beauty formed for the representation of it, and, in response, to the inner beauty of nature itself.

My only questions with the exhibition relate to the originality of the work—I felt like walking through works seen many times before: Guiseppe Penone and many others have already brought the dead trees to us, Damien Hirst beautiful frescoes of insects, Mona Hatoum drew maps of the world using marbles, etc. So what make these works rich and interesting? Maybe the legacy of the earlier works?

At least, it is pleasing, and renew our questioning on the way we see beauty in the world that surrounds us. Let’s hope the Renwick will keep it up!