Renwick Gallery – “Wonder”
The Renwick Gallery had been under renovation and repair and only just re-opened last month. Never one to pass up a new (or new to me) museum, I visited in the rainy and foggy days after Thanksgiving.
The current exhibit WONDER encompasses both floors and is more or less a whole-museum curated collection:
This fall the Renwick Gallery–the first building in the United States built expressly as an art museum–opens its doors after a major, two-year renovation. To celebrate, we’re transforming the entire museum into an immersive artwork with our debut exhibition, WONDER.
Nine leading contemporary artists–Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin and Leo Villareal–are each taking over different galleries in the building, creating site-specific installations inspired by the Renwick. Together, these installations will turn the building into a larger-than-life work of art.
A few pics from my visit follow, each of the installations is gorgeous in its own way and most importantly–they allow photography, encourage it even!
The Renwick Gallery is located right across from the White House and Executive Office Building, which makes it a good option if your sightseeing plans take you over there, and it’s a nice break from the Smithsonian museums on The Mall.
Pictures don’t do this one justice. The way the threads are positioned gives the entire piece an eye-boggling curve and an overall gorgeous spectrum/rainbow effect.
23,000 LEDs make up this piece that has been programmed with an algorithm to ensure that the patterns it displays are never repeated. We sat there watching it for minutes, it’s pretty captivating.
All of my pictures are in the above slideshow and on flickr. I used to say that it was rare there were places in DC I hadn’t visited in my almost 20 years of living here, but this year has been pleasantly surprising me! WONDER runs through Summer 2016. I can’t wait to visit it again and I really can’t wait to see what they’ve got in mind next year to replace it! 
