WILD features the work of twenty-eight artists who explore human existence with nature in a time of planetary change. This national group exhibition is juried by Jane Winchell, the director of Peabody Essex Museum’s Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center.

In WILD, a range of media, including photography, painting, sculpture, and video, is on view. Liza Clement, fascinated by ecological phenomena in the age of the Anthropocene, imagines a hybrid organism in ectosymbiotic commensalistic behavior (hybrid), by using plastic, light, and heat to increase or decrease growths of found and collected natural and inorganic elements. In Reduce, Reuse, and Recyclone II, Andrew Wood strives to combat climate chaos by embodying sustainable order through the use of found materials and renewable balsa wood. Gretchen Woodman’s Rhino, a kinetic wall hanging comprised of multiple layers of painted silk, mimics inhales and exhales through gentle movements in the fabric and captures the struggles of animals existing alongside humans. Not only does the work on view in this show reference art historical depictions of landscape and nature, but it also shifts the perspective to highlight the tensions and complications of human interaction.

Featured Artists

Christine Anderson, Anne Beinecke, Dinesh Boaz, Kyle Browne, Jocelyn Chemel, Liza Clement, Leigh Craven, Sharon Cutts, Steven Edson, Elizabeth Helfer, Hope Hoffman, Matt Hufford, Moonhee Kim, Léonie Little-Lex, Justice McDaniel, Sasha Pedro, Evan Perkins, Paula Pitman Brown, Kimberly Ritchie, Ralph Robinson, Kirsten Rae Simonsen, Christopher Thibault, Sophy Tuttle, Nicole Weber, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Wing Na Wong, Andrew Wood, Gretchen Woodman

About the Juror

Jane Winchell has been the director of Peabody Essex Museum’s Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center since its founding in 2003. She started at PEM in 1992 as curator of PEM’s Natural History collection. She then led the development of the museum’s original Art & Nature Center – created to appeal to intergenerational audiences – as well as a complete re-design and expansion of the Center in 2013. She has curated more than 20 contemporary art and science exhibitions at PEM on myriad topics, ranging from visual perception to bio-inspired design. She is currently developing a show for 2021 on climate action. Her background is in the natural sciences, communication, education, and the performing arts. She holds a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, and two graduate degrees – an M.S. in Science Communication and an M.A. in Biology – both from Boston University.