Kick off the summer with new works by Mayne Kratz! Kratz finds inspiration in Arizona’s harsh desert climate, collecting found organic materials such as bone fragments, poppy pods, grasses, and flowers which she collects on long hikes in the surrounding area of her home and even on the train tracks behind her studio. She arranges this matter in circles, constellations, nests and other forms before suspending it in resin against a painted panel. Materiality is both heightened and diminished as the earthen matter transforms into a micro or macro ecosystem of its own. The process is time-consuming, toxic and difficult, but for her, this act of preservation is an ode to the cyclical pattern of nature. “With my art, I celebrate the endless cycles of change and rebirth,” she explains. “I have great reverence for the natural world.”

Also on view is Leap of Faith: Rodney Smith Retrospective, with Paul Martineau, Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and Leslie Smolan, Executive Director of the Rodney Smith Estate, in attendance.