Elmhurst Art Museum

01.06.12 - 03.24.12

Mr. Wild’s Garden is photographer David Weinberg’s provocative re-envisioning of his mysterious childhood
neighbor, Mr. Wild. Weinberg’s narrative body of photographs tells a story about a dilapidated greenhouse, a yard of towering weeds and a solitary, enigmatic man who inspired a range of emotionally charged images. Weinberg’s exhibition acts as a meditation on the natural process of growth, overgrowth and decay.

01.13.12 - 03.10.12

Splice, Carolyn Ottmer’s installation of hanging vines and branches cast in stainless steel create a canopy of silver growth in EAM’s Hostetler Gallery. A hybrid of organic form, technical process and the use of specialized material, plant life that thrives in urban environments inspires the sculptures—like veins breaking through cracks in a sidewalk to clamber up inhospitable concrete walls.

01.13.12 - 03.10.12

Molly McCracken Kumar contemplates the birth, death and regeneration of the natural world in her exuberant paintings. McCracken Kumar’s paintings embody themes from Hindu philosophy and spirituality. Her whimsical compositions represent Shiva’s cosmic dance of the dynamic tension and change of the universe. McCracken Kumar says she “experiences this dynamic tension most keenly while gardening and observing plants.”

01.13.12 - 03.13.12

Meghan Q. McCook’s Terra Hive series of blown glass terrariums seamlessly blend artistic exploration with functional craft. McCook creates flowing organic environments by blowing hot glass into a copper-wire structures. With the higher melting temperature of wire, the frame stays intact as the molten glass billows around the structure.

01.13.12 - 03.31.12

Chicago artist Stephen Eichhorn creates delicate hand-cut paper collages from photos of foliage—palm fronds,
grasses, leaves and flowers. Quiet and poetic, Eichhorn’s work radiates a complex harmony between the natural
and handmade world. Eichhorn’s new work has on black backgrounds creates a floating image in cosmic space. Though complexly layered and intuitively organized, the work exudes a simple elegance. Eichhorn’s floral arrangements suggest an underlying structural rhythm to growth, adaptation and accumulation.