Current and Past Art Shows

Marsh Kaleidoscope

A painting series by Pamela Tarbell

Jun 25 - Oct 08, 2023

Marshes and wetlands are key to our entire ecosystem. They clean and filter water while providing habitat for numerous birds, amphibians, and insects. They are also visually exciting to walk through: their multiple layers of growth create patterns of reflecting leaves or bushes in every spot of water. Pamela Tarbell’s “Marsh Kaleidoscope” painting series brings these kaleidoscopic wonders to the Arboretum in the form of colorful abstract paintings that highlight the beauty and value of these life-protecting, carbon-storing champions.

Intersections

Pairings of Botanical Art and Herbarium Vouchers from the Collections of the Arnold Arboretum

Mar 10 - Sep 10, 2023

The living collections of the Arnold Arboretum are complemented by supplementary collections that reside in the Hunnewell Building. Among these, the Horticultural Library collections include an exquisite collection of botanical prints, and the Herbarium of Cultivated Plants consists of approximately 132,000 "vouchers"—plant specimens that have been dried, pressed, and mounted on paper. This exhibition pairs botanical art by Mark Catesby and other botanical artists with herbarium vouchers of both native and non-native plants in the Arnold Arboretum living collection, resulting in an insider's look at how these various collections intersect.

Still Lives: Plants of the Arnold Arboretum, Close Up and Far Away

Photographs by Vaughn Sills

Winter 2023 - Summer 2023

Photographer Vaughn Sills brought her exquisite still lives of Arboretum plants—whether in flower or fruit, burnished fall foliage or shimmery bud—to our exhibition. Each stem is a wonder of composition and color—prominent, yet sublimely connected to a background of a distant and ethereal landscape. The images are Still Lives, from inside Sills' studio, and include the outside—her images of nature and wide expanses of earth. Combined, these seemingly disparate elements convey the importance of two ways of looking, close up and far away.

Artists Redux/Seen Again: Artists from the Arnold Arboretum’s Website Exhibitions, 2020-2022

Winter 2023

Eleven artists, representing seven exhibitions, bring their work back in person to the Arnold Arboretum. After 24 months of virtual shows during the pandemic, they share their vision of nature and the Arboretum for all our visitors.  

Intricate Beauties: The Lichen Explorations of Natalie Andrew

Fall 2022 - Winter 2023

Ceramicist and biologist Natalie Andrew's work in the Visitor Center displayed the artist's colorful sense of design and pattern and her adhering care and interest in the natural world with lichen embellishments.

The Overstory by Richard Powers, Handmade Scroll by Diane Samuels

Fall 2022 - Winter 2023

Diane Samuels' brought her vibrant, textured scroll, The Overstory by Richard Powers, to the Arboretum as part of our Sesquicentennial exhibitions. One side of the scroll is a hand-transcription in micro-script of the book made of strips of recycled drawings, prints, and papers from the artist's studio. The non-transcribed side is collaged with 99 bookplates.

The Art of the Woodturner VI

Fall of 2022-Fall of 2022

Woodturners from three New England clubs returned to the Arboretum for a weekend of craft and demonstrations in October. Using a lathe to form their pieces, woodturners created practical objects or “turned” to the purely aesthetic, resulting in a show that appealed to the eye and the touch.

Tree Ring Histories: The Quilts of Anna Von Mertens

Summer 2022 - Fall 2022

Working with international dendrochronologists, Anna Von Mertens culled source images of tree ring cross-sections from studies connecting climate variability and periods of human instability. The resulting art quilts are hand-stitched fabric, white thread on black backing, representing and connecting periods of drought with historical events.

The Nature of Art/The Art of Nature

Summer of 2022

Fourteen artists from New England Book Artists bring their unique art to this show. Each artist takes a personal  look at nature, combining their own interpretation of what resonates with them with a singular book design.