Source: The Kentucky Standard
May 12, 2018
Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest has selected three artist-in-residence participants for 2018. Rachel Singel, Anthony Heinz May and Natalie Andrew have been invited to live at Bernheim and create unique pieces of art that remain part of Bernheim’s permanent collection.
“We’re excited about our selected artists who will use Bernheim as their inspiration, creating works that connect people with nature through the lens of art,” said Bernheim Visual Arts Coordinator Jenny Zeller. “Although each artist is varied in their approach to their art-making practice, all utilize aspects of nature as a primary reference in their work.”
For the first time, Bernheim has dedicated a residency to a regional artist living in Kentucky or Southern Indiana. The first recipient of Bernheim’s regional artist in residence is artist and Associate Professor of Art at University of Louisville Rachel Singel.
Singel’s work is a response to the intricacies and depth of natural forms. Lines are the building blocks of her world and realized through the mediums of drawing, printmaking and book assembly. Motivated by “Vanishing Acts,” a traveling exhibit Bernheim hosted in 2016, and the “Kentucky Trees of Concern” exhibit at Bernheim, Singel plans to create a series of detailed drawings of endangered tree species in Kentucky including the Eastern hemlock, American chestnut, dogwood, black walnut, oak tree, and American elm. All of these drawings will be on paper that the artist will hand-make during her residency at Bernheim from April 28 to May 26.
Anthony Heinz May is a sculptor from Brooklyn, N.Y., who alters the state of living things and natural compositions through trees. Once transformed, these installations look as if nature has been digitally compromised and pixelated, exposing relationships between nature, humans and technology. The artist has completed a number of public installations, many of which are located in New York and with Chicago Sculpture International and their Chicago Tree Project where artists turn sick trees into works of art. Anthony Heinz May will be in residence from August 8 to September 19 with plans to create site-inspired artworks using natural waste found in Bernheim’s landscape.
Natalie Andrew is a visual artist and a professional biologist from Boston, Mass., working in ceramics and works on paper. Andrew’s work and science research converge around mosses, slime molds and other denizens of the forest floor. Andrew cultivates slime molds by feeding them oxides and other pigments, then “grows” them on paper and porcelain. As the molds crawl over the surfaces, they leave behind colorants, thus creating permanent records of their passage. Using attractants, repellents and other means, she influences the shapes that they draw, with results being a collaboration between human and single-celled creature. Andrew will explore the Bernheim landscape and create work using species of slime molds common to this area. During a short visit in mid-May, she will collect the molds and return for total immersion from Sept. 15 to Nov.15.