Experience 'WONDER'
Following a two-year renovation, the oldest museum in Washington, D.C. and the first art museum built in the United States — the Renwick Gallery — reopened in November with an exhibition titled "Wonder." Nine contemporary artists — Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin, and Leo Villareal — each selected for their ability to focus on process and unexpected materials, transformed the empty spaces in the museum by creating room-sized art installations.
"Each of the artists has demonstrated a talent for conjuring the right balance of materials, scale, and sensitivity to a site to prompt reactions among viewers that hinge on surprise, awareness, and, crucially, awe," Nicholas R. Bell, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator in Charge at the Renwick Gallery writes in the exhibition catalog's introduction.
The installations, which will be on view for six months, draw inspiration from the specific galleries in which they reside.
“Never stop wandering into wonder.”
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
“It is a happiness to wonder; — it is a happiness to dream.”
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
“It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.”
“Even in the familiar there can be surprise and wonder.”
Renwick Gallery, located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20006, is open daily from 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
The exhibition will close in two phases to allow for the reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collection. The second-floor galleries will close May 8, 2016, and the first-floor galleries will close July 10, 2016.
