WONDER

WONDER is the inaugural exhibition at the newly renovated Renwick Gallery.

It features installations by nine major contemporary artists, including Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin, and Leo Villareal. Each has taken over a different gallery in the building, creating site-specific installations inspired by the Renwick. Together, these installations have transformed the museum into an immersive work of art.

Whether you go or not, Wonder -- the catalog that accompanies the exhibition celebrating the reopening of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery -- explores the work of the nine contemporary artists who were invited to take over the Renwick’s galleries. The artists transform the whole of the museum into an engaging cabinet of wonders. Mundane materials such as index cards, marbles, sticks, and thread are conjured into strange new worlds that demonstrate the qualities uniting these artists: a sensitivity to site and the ways we experience place, a passion for making and materiality, and a desire to provoke awe.