Lynden Sculpture Garden’s Inviting ‘Inside/Outside’

The gallery space of theLynden Sculpture Garden,complete with a meditative element conducive to the serene landscape outside,recently opened its first exhibition, “Inside/Outside: Linda Wervey Vitamvasand Kevin Giese.” The renovated space perfectly enveloped the exhibit’s spare,sophisticated sculptures. In addition to using the ample space inside theinviting gallery, both artists mounted artwork outside, amid the sculpture garden,to create a dialogue between the indoor and outdoor environments.

Vitamvas has createddelicate organic plant forms. Located on a glass table in the gallery’s center,Vitamvas’ porcelain arrangement FictiliusHerbarium highlighted sexual diversity in a very pure white palette.Sensuous, curved stamens and ridged pollen sacs gathered on the table andreflected gray silhouettes below in a celebration of botany and biology.

Giese has suspendedapproximately 80 thin, carved branches from the ceiling to form a curtain madeof ash wood in Still Living. On theopposite wall is Giese’s long, hollowed-out wood sculpture titled Original River, whichcontains thousands of quartz pebblescollected over two years.

Outside, Vitamvashand-pinched 350 pots in native clay, repeating her glazed white and celadonporcelain sculpture from the inside. These outdoor pots, titled Indigenous Transience,are placed along an I-beam toaccentuate the relationship between the natural and the mechanical, the organicand the manmade. Over time, the sculpture transforms as the clay developscracks and chips, or even disintegrates, and rust appears on the beam in aprocess envisioning age and mortality.

Near the lakeshore,Giese highlighted trees for Immigrant,a site-specific installation usingbuckthorn. Brought from Europe to this country, buckthorn now grows soprolifically in Wisconsinthat it inhibits indigenous growth. Giese’s slender, bare bark trunks towerover other trees in this look at native and invasive species.

The inside/outsideaspect of this exhibition provides visitors with an opportunity to observe artthat complements the Lynden’s permanent collection. This idea piques interestin the sculpture garden’s other outdoor treasures, while Peg Bradley’spermanent contemporary art (including a tiny Kandinsky landscape in the diningroom) illuminates the interior. How fascinating that the “Inside/Outside” themefor this premiere exhibition will continue to apply to future shows at the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

“Inside/Outside: LindaWervey Vitamvas and Kevin Giese” continues through Aug. 11.