Kaleidoscope by Graciela Cassel

Was on view at the Forest Explorers Triangle June 25, 2022 through January 28, 2023

A surprising, multiplied reality will awaken dreams of new possibilities in viewers when they look through Kaleidoscope. The viewer will discover different dimensions amongst the trees, in the sky, and in their own image within the Queens Botanical Garden landscape.

Infinite Inspiration
by Deborah Sudran

Was on view at the Visitor & Administration Building Gallery July  2022 through January 8, 2023

Deborah Sudran found infinite inspiration in nature and experienced that inspiration for decades. Sudran, who passed away in 2020, was not an ordinary nature painter, but painted out of a love for the colors, forms and space that nature presents, particularly up close. Rarely is there a horizon line seen in these works for the viewer’s vision is immersed in the elements and forms of plants, and though her paintings are painterly, her allover composition creates almost a carpet of color and texture.

In her travels throughout the Americas, Sudran photographed the plant tableaus that delighted and inspired her paintings. Her works transcending their photographic origins to an abstraction and hues of nature seen up close, whether in botanical gardens, deserts or forests.

Through her paintings Sudran sought to communicate her emotional response to nature with compelling color and powerful imagery. Queens Botanical Garden is thankful for the gift of these works from the Estate of Deborah Sudran, and for the support of Viridian Artists gallery where Sudran participated in exhibits for many years. We hope that Deborah Sudran’s legacy will prompt the viewer to look closer at nature and share in her inspiration.

Spread Love: A Mini Mural Installation
presented by Unfamous NY 

This outdoor exhibit was on view  September 14 through December 11, 2022
Live Painting – September 15-24, 2022
Opening Reception – Saturday, September 24, 2022 

The exhibition features an array of multidisciplinary local artists coming together to create a variety of mini murals with themes ranging from environmental awareness to mental health awareness, and more. Murals as a medium transcend the boundaries of the city and allow artists to showcase issues that matter most to local communities in a coordinated effort. The rise of graffiti and murals in New York City was made possible through the interconnectedness provided by the public, allowing artists to operate in harmonious efforts and in targeted locations. “Spread Love: A Mini Mural Installation” honors the roots of this movement by assembling various artists from around New York City to congregate, create, and curate the various central themes that matter most to them.

Unfamous NY is a local multi-disciplinary art and lifestyle collective based in Queens, New York. Driven to create lasting experiences while representing the unique cultural identity of our city, we continue to develop our footprints in the New York urban art world. CLICK HERE to learn more.

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AMPLIFY: AnkhLave Garden Project

This outdoor exhibit was on view June 25 –  October 1
Sherwin Banfield’s Botanical Boombox was extended through October 30

The annual AnkhLave Garden Project is a fellowship where Queens-based Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists create installations in a natural community space as an alternative studio and exhibition space. For the third year at Queens Botanical Garden, AnkhLave has selected five fellows to create site specific art installations throughout the grounds of QBG. By presenting artists and art-making in a non-traditional setting like Queens Botanical Garden, AnkhLave aims to promote artists of color who represent and reflect the Garden’s visiting audience.

Curated by former AnkhLave Garden Project Fellow Cecilia André.

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Care/Repair: Mending the Circle

This group exhibition by Southeast Queens Arts Alliance was on view in the Visitor & Administration Building Gallery
Friday, April 22 through Saturday, May 28

Care/Repair: Mending the Circle is not just an exhibition, it is a statement and conversation about human cooperation and our mutual interdependence. Care is fundamental to the human condition. It is manifest in myriad acts of kindness and labors of love. All humans are engaged in care activities, both as receivers of care and in most cases as care givers. And we care most for those that are emotionally, physically and culturally closer to us. What are the boundaries of our caring? How far should the boundaries of caring be expanded?

Participating artists include: Damali Abrams • Natali Bravo-Barbee • Sherese Francis • Jacqueline Herranz-Brooks • Chemin Hsiao • Marvenia Knight • Rejin Leys • Angela Miskis • Elizabeth Velazquez • Shenna Vaughn

Curated by Shilpi Chandra

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Here, There, and EverywhereAn Outdoor Exhibition by Artists of Kew Gardens

This outdoor exhibit was on view on the Queens Botanical Garden perimeter fence along Main Street
December 10, 2021 – May 15, 2022

This exhibition was born of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic stress and political division it engendered. With shops, restaurants, theatres and museums shuttered, occupations lost or on hold, neighbors separated and families unable to gather, normal life seemed to have come to a halt. How do you cultivate hope and strength and remain positive and affirming when everything around you seems to point in the opposite direction?

This is when artists step in. They remind us of the beauty of the world, its strangeness and its transience, and employ the power of imagination and experience to shape sensibility and attempt to provide respite and hope. It is our hope that as you pass by you will stop to enjoy, reflect and, perhaps, be inspired to create by the work of these artists who, like all of us, found their world turned upside down.

Shapes of the Garden by Chemin Hsiao

Was on view in the Visitor & Administration Building Gallery
December 3, 2021 – April 10, 2022

Shapes of the Garden is a series of woodblock prints inspired by the ever-changing shapes and colors of Queens Botanical Garden. Based on the Japanese ukiyo-e Mokuhanga (Woodblock Print) tradition, Chemin Hsiao’s prints capture the seasonal transition throughout the Spring and Fall of 2021.

This exhibition is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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Spirit Sees Red by M.E. Guadalupe Rubi

On view in the Visitor & Administration Building
September 18 through November 21, 2021

Spirit Sees Red is a meditation on memory: the stories we inherit and those we create to remember. Drawing inspiration from the First Nations tradition of the sacredness of the color red, Latin folklore, and the desire to reclaim an Indigenous narrative, artist M.E. Guadalupe Rubi embraces botany and the natural world as a source of healing and reconciliation.

This exhibition is made possible by the New York City Artist Corps.

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Walking Broadway: Signs of Nature on the Wickquasgeck Trail by Jessica Maffia

June 25 through September 6, 2021

Jessica Maffia’s project followed a walk along the length of Broadway in Manhattan, the Bronx, and northward, where she photographed an element of nature on every block. The series asks the viewer to look more closely and explore the wisdom of the non-human and the poetry of the natural world.

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AnkhLave Garden Project

June 18 through September 12, 2021

The AnkhLave Garden Project returned with five Queens-based Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) artists who create temporary public art installations in a natural community space as an alternative studio and exhibition space.

AnkhLave Garden Project

We ❤ Worms Student Art Exhibit

On view in the Visitor & Administration Building
Through August 1

Organized by the NYC Compost Project hosted by QBG, The We ❤ Worms Student Art Exhibit features over 30 student art pieces, ranging from drawings, painting, music, videos, jokes, poems, and more, to showcase one of Earth’s greatest allies for soil health: worms.

We ❤ Worms Student Art Exhibit

Invasive Species
By Sam Scoggins

On View in the Visitor & Administration Building
April 16 through June 13

Artist Sam Scoggins draws from the tradition of botanical cyanotypes, an early photographic technique, to explore what we define as “invasive species.” Scoggins’ large scale prints present these plants found in the New York City Watershed and Hudson River in a new light.

This exhibit is made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

Invasive Species by Sam Scoggins

On the Inside Looking Out
By the 2020 AnkhLave Garden Project Fellows

On view in the Visitor & Administration Building
January 22 through April 4

The annual AnkhLave Garden Project is a fellowship where six Queens-based Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) artists create installations in a natural community space as an alternative studio and exhibition space. For the 2nd annual Fellowship, six female artists of color with immigration journeys to the US had the unique challenge of creating and displaying their work in a natural environment. This resulted in a public art show that ran through summer 2020. Now, months later, they come together again, displaying relics from the initial exhibit along with new and continued explorations that are in conversation with the original public works.

This exhibit was made possible by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

Spirit Sees Red by M.E. Guadalupe Rubi

On view in the Visitor & Administration Building
September 18 through November 21, 2021

Spirit Sees Red is a meditation on memory: the stories we inherit and those we create to remember. Drawing inspiration from the First Nations tradition of the sacredness of the color red, Latin folklore, and the desire to reclaim an Indigenous narrative, artist M.E. Guadalupe Rubi embraces botany and the natural world as a source of healing and reconciliation.

This exhibition is made possible by the New York City Artist Corps.

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With Every Fiber of Our Being by Soraya Navia

On view in the Visitor & Administration Building
September 22 through December 27

With Every Fiber of Our Being is an ocean conservation-focused exhibition that invites us to reflect on the issue of pollution from the perspective of the marine animals directly impacted by plastic waste. Fiber artist and graphic designer Soraya Navia transforms everyday materials into upcycled canvases that become both the foundation and inspiration for hand-embroidered portraits of underwater life.

This exhibition is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from theNew York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Click the button below to learn more about the artist and exhibition!

AnkhLave Arts at Queens Botanical Garden

On view July 21 through September 8

AnkhLave Arts Alliance works to to provide inclusive representation of people of diverse ethnicities within the contemporary art conversation. AnkhLave has selected six Queens-based artists to create site specific art installations within the grounds of Queens Botanical Garden (QBG). By presenting artists and art-making in a nontraditional setting like the QBG, AnkhLave aims to promote artists of color who represent and reflect the Garden’s visiting audience.

This project is made possible by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.

Click the button below to learn about each artist and preview artwork by AnkhLave Arts Alliance at Queens Botanical Garden!

Recollections: Highlights from Our Permanent Collection

On view January 17 through March 22
Visitor & Administration Building Gallery
FREE

As we look forward to a new decade, Queens Botanical Garden is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of our Visitor & Administration Building Gallery by taking the time to look back and highlight the art and artists that graced our space during the last decade.

Recollections presents a selection of highlights from our permanent collection of works donated by artists who have exhibited here starting in 2009. These diverse works visualize our mission of connecting people, plants, and cultures through a multitude of media, subject, and inspirations.

Featured Artists:

Jane Ingram Allen
Joyce and Ed Morrill
Shari Romar
Audrey Gottlieb
Barbara E. Leven
H. David Stein
Gennadyi Gurman
Iandry Randriamandroso
Paul Lin
Emily Barnett
Tatiana Arocha
Carol Reid
Frank Buddingh

Frank Buddingh
Manuel Macarrulla
Vikram Dogra
Zimmer
Chemin Hsiao
Shahryar Shahamat
Laura Fantini
Adele Epstein – PWP
Serkan Altinoz
Jamie Pesavento
Amber Vittoria
Darya Warner
Nancy Paredes

Marbles in the Valley by Nancy Paola Paredes

On view in the Visitor & Administration Building
September 13 through December 22

Marbles in the Valley is an exhibition of prints and photographs that portrays nostalgic landscapes reminiscent of the native countries of the borough’s diverse communities. Born and raised in Corona, Queens to Honduran parents, artist Nancy Paredes depicts the distorted memories of immigrants and the imaginings of a first generation.

This exhibition centers around a series of collagraphs of abstract
landscapes printed from the layering of plastic shopping bags.
Accompanying the collagraphs are otherworldly photographs that
extend into a different timeline, offering a second perspective of these
familiar places.

Grown-Up Flowers By PLAYLAB, INC.

On view throughout the Garden
Through Thursday, September 12

Giant inflatable flowers greet you at Queens Botanical Garden! Created by PLAYLAB, INC., “Grown Up Flowers” imagines flowers inflated many times their normal size, giving visitors a new perspective on these iconic and playful representations of beauty. Take selfies with four larger-than-life flowers for a fantastical time at the Garden.

In Full Bloom
By Darya Warner, Amber Vittoria, and Jamie Pesavento

March 29 through August 25

In Full Bloom presents the work of three artists, Darya Warner, Amber Vittoria, and Jamie Pesavento. Each artist has created a series of works inspired by the shape and form of flowers, plants, and bodies in nature.

Organic Emergence
By Serkan Altinoz

December 1, 2018 through March 10, 2019

Artist Serkan Altinoz draws upon traditional Turkish paper marbling to create a new technique that integrates enamel paints, chemical solvents, and fire. The series of resulting paintings in Organic Emergence illustrate forms like flowers, butterflies, and fibrous tree-like structures.

Organic Emergence was curated in partnership with Samadhi Advisors.

IMPRESSIVE PLANTS, SELECTIONS FROM OUR HERBARIUM

August 24 through November 18, 2018

From August 24 through November 18, explore the large variety of plant species that grow at QBG through this preserved collection of specimens.

Our Botanical World
By Professional Women Photographers Group Exhibit

May 4 through August 5, 2018

Our Botanical World showcases curated photographs by members of the Professional Women
Photographers group inspired by the botanical world and its impact on human life through all seasons.

Photo Credit: “Buy My Onions” by Adele Epstein

HOPE
By Laura Fantini

January 9 through April 29, 2018

In HOPE, Laura Fantini’s intricately detailed pencil drawings of seeds, which she has collected throughout NYC and Italy, explore the fundamental power of seeds, new beginnings, and growth.

Borderlines
By Shahryar Shahamat

September 29 thru December 31, 2017

Through his paintings in Borderlines, artist Shahryar Shahamat shares his experience—boundaries and challenges—as a resident of New York City for the past seven years.

和 花 園 坐 著
HÉ HUĀ YUÁN ZUÒ ZHE
SITTING WITH THE GARDEN
By Che Min Hsiao

June 30 through September 24, 2017

Sitting with the Garden is a collection of site-specific watercolor paintings by Che Min Hsiao, a Taiwanese painter based in Queens. Viewers will experience the beauty of Queens Botanical Garden filtered through the artist’s memories of nature in Taiwan.

This project is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The Structure of Nature
By Zimer

March 10 through June 18, 2017

Zimer learned the art of graffiti from the underground walls of Queens, New York. After developing his personal aesthetic, he increasingly adopted fine art principles into his paintings. The intertwined influences of Graffiti and Art History on his style have transcended it beyond traditional classification.

The Structure of Nature exhibited over a dozen paintings and a site-specific mural that fuse his modern, graffiti-style paint application with QBG’s LEED™ Platinum Certified Building through traditional still life and landscape subject matter.

In addition to exhibiting in galleries and creating murals, Zimer received his BA in architecture. His studio practice has included sculpture, fashion, furniture, animation and graphic design. Zimer has painted murals all over the world including: The New York Auto Show, Comic Con, The World Trade Center, Philadelphia Tattoo Convention, London’s South Bank, and the Northside Arts Festival.

November 22, 2016 through February 26, 2017

Queens based photographer, Vikram Dogra has lived in Astoria since 2000. He arrived as an immigrant from India in 1982 and has lived in West Virginia, North Carolina and Washington, DC. In the cradle of the multicultural landscape of Queens he found a place to love and belong. East of East River began as a photo series recording the unique makeup of both landscape and the people of Astoria and Long Island City and, eventually became a self-published photography book in 2015. These photographs capture a changing landscape of the neighborhoods from 2004-2015. The photographs combining street and fine-arts photography offer a unique and historical portrait of the ever changing neighborhoods.

FANTASÍAS Y CARNAVALES
By MANUEL MACARRULLA

August 9 through November 13, 2016

Artist Manuel Macarrulla exhibits hand-crafted masks, drawings, and paintings inspired by carnivals and fantasies that incorporate nature and animal imagery, as well as his Dominican heritage.

SANCTUARIES
By TATIANA AROCHA

May 3 through August 7, 2016

Visual artist Tatiana Arocha’s SANCTUARIES is a series of large-scale, intricately-layered reinventions of natural Colombian landscape, hand-constructed on digital canvases, printed, and arrayed into immersive murals. Both refuge and warning, SANCTUARIES uses a combination of natural specimens, human artifacts, and modern technologies to evoke a rainforest that is as lush as it is imperiled.

PORTRAITS OF TALL FRIENDS
By FRANK BUDDINGH’ & CAROL REID

February 16 through May 1, 2016

The Portraits of Tall Friends exhibit is a valentine in sculpture and photography, inspired by the amazing, abstract beauty of trees that live among us. It celebrates TreeSpeakArtist Frank Buddingh’ and photographer Carol Reid’s life-long bond with trees, and invites you to experience these great friends of mankind as remarkable works of art.

A SCORE IN GRAPHITE AND BLUE
By MAYEN ALCANTARA

October 27, 2015 through January 31, 2016

A unique combination of both visual and aural art, Mayen Alcantara’s intimate piece will take the audience on a journey through Queens. The multimedia exhibit is a series of sound installations, played on modified music boxes, and includes drawings and graphic musical scores. To create each piece, Mayen and a Queens resident wear “seismograph” devices to trace movements and gestures into markings, which Alcantara then turns into sheet music ribbons for participants to handcrank through music boxes. This collection of transcriptions is rooted in the moment when oral storytelling traditions overlap with modern-day record keeping.