ENJOY YOUR VISIT — Exhibitions

Treewhispers
January 14 – April 8, 2012

It seems that everyone has a tree story — climbing a tree or falling out of one, walking in a dense forest, or finding that tree that seemed to speak to you. Treewhispers is an ongoing, international collaboration "awakening our heartfelt connection to trees," involving handmade paper, art, and stories relating to trees as a symbol and resource.

Click here to view more about this exhibition.

Fifth Annual Student Botanical Arts Exhibition
September 30 – October 16, 2011

Each year adult students participating in the Regenstein School Botanical Arts program submit a selection of their work to be juried and featured in the Student Botanical Art Exhibition. Students of all levels and working in a variety of media participate to bring this show featuring more than 75 outstanding works to the Joutras Gallery for two weeks every autumn. For more information click here.

Ruth Duckworth: Shaping Chicago
July 30 – September 25, 2011

An installation of modernist sculpture by ceramist and sculptor Ruth Duckworth. Duckworth was born Ruth Windmuller on April 10, 1919, in Hamburg, Germany. Because her father was Jewish, she was not allowed to study art under the Nazi regime, so she left her home country in 1936 to study in Britain, where she remained for her early career. In 1964, Duckworth moved to Chicago to teach at the University of Chicago. After 13 years on the faculty, she retired in 1977 to spend more time sculpting, moving her studio to a former pickle plant in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, where she worked until her death.

The exhibition's main piece, Amorphous #1, was shown at Navy Pier in 1997 and was donated to the Chicago Botanic Garden when Duckworth passed away on October 18, 2009, at age 90. Smaller pieces by Duckworth were also part of the exhibition.

First Student Botanical Photo Exhibition
July 1 – 4, 2011

Students participating in the Regenstein School Photography program submit a selection of their work to be juried and featured in the Student Botanical Photography Exhibition. Students of all levels participate in the show, which will also be available for viewing online. For more information click here.

Close: A Journey in Scotland
April 24 – September 26, 2010

This exhibition provided a journey throughout Scotland via the work of more than 30 renowned landscape designers and artists. The exhibition featured more than 250 photographs as well as an accompanying film about the exhibition. Photographer Allan Pollok-Morris spent five years exploring what this small nation has done to champion the role that gardens and land art play in global arts and culture.

Losing Paradise?
Endangered Plants Here and Around the World
January 16 – April 4, 2010

This exhibition draws attention to plant conservation issues around the world. Curated by the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA), and developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the Center for Plant Conservation, the exhibition features 44 original botanical artworks of threatened and endangered plants from the United States and around the world. The exhibition and accompanying book are the result of a three-year project undertaken by artists from the United States and around the world, all members of the ASBA.

Shown at left: Silene regia, North America
Artist: Heeyoung Kim

In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World

In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World stretches visitors’ imaginations as they embark on a sensory journey of contemporary gardens from around the globe. Featured are images of the world’s great gardens from Singapore to Brazil to South Africa, captured by such preeminent garden photographers as Nicola Browne, Mick Hales and Alain Le Toquin, among others.

Support for this exhibition was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Peggy Macnamara: The Natural Art of Nests

This exhibition in the Joutras Gallery of the Regenstein Center featured artwork from Peggy Macnamara's book Architecture by Birds and Insects.

Chapungu: Custom and Legend, A Culture in Stone

A remarkable exhibit of contemporary African stone sculpture, Chapungu: Custom and Legend, A Culture in Stone contained ninety sculptures displayed in the beautiful surroundings of the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Garfield Park Conservatory; drawn from the collection of the Chapungu Sculpture Park of Zimbabwe, Africa.

They are the work of 35 sculptors — three generations of artists — most of whom are Shona. The Shona people are the majority ethnic group in Zimbabwe and have lived in southern Africa for more than 800 years. Through the sculptures, the artists speak of their cultural traditions, religious beliefs, social concerns and everyday life. Yet they communicate the experiences and emotions common to all people.

Dan Kiley: Master Landscape Architect

Renowned for fusing classic garden elements with a vital, modern sensibility, Dan Kiley ranks as one of the most important American landscape architects of the twentieth century. In a remarkable 60-year career, he produced public and private gardens, plazas, memorials and urban landscapes that define modern landscape architecture around the world.

Mentored by the environments of his youth — Boston's urban alleyways and New Hampshire's pristine forests — Mr. Kiley rejected Beaux-Arts formulas and the Romantic traditions of Frederick Law Olmsted. Working alongside modernist architects such as Louis Kahn, Eero Saarinen, and Edward Larrabee Barnes, he developed something new: a style of landscape architecture characterized by strong, geometric forms and fluid spaces.

From the Rockefeller Institute and the Oakland Museum to the Art Institute of Chicago and our own Garden, Mr. Kiley's designs reflect his unmatched vision for shaping nature into intense experiences of order, beauty and purity of line. The Garden's exhibit is composed of enormous photomurals that celebrate Mr. Kiley's most notable landscapes as we pay tribute to one of our greatest friends.