To many visitors Wave Hill is a utopian garden, a place to seek ideas and inspiration. Garden Improvement poses an alternate view of the relationship between people and nature by looking at how a garden is made more inhabitable, personal, and domesticated. The exhibition brings together idiosyncratic, do-it-yourself ideas born from the artists’ spirit of invention, rather than by design. All thirteen projects were created specifically for Wave Hill. The five outdoor works suggest practical ways to make the most of outdoor space, while the eight projects in the gallery display a range of urban responses to bringing the garden indoors. Self-reliance, portability and attention to the environment are introduced in works by Kahrl & Ruff, Goldman, Leitão, and Ross. Interventions by Yoder and Thomas spotlight the garden as a gathering place. Hayes creates an indoor garden, while Drogoul preserves the scents of the garden for indoor examination. Beall, Lozano, and Selekman use plants or garden tools as a departure point in their sculptural transformation of domestic spaces. Blachly and Shaw invite visitors to imagine a fantastical way to improve Wave Hill, a site that has been shaped by so many individuals over the past 150 years.

This complex exhibition came together through the efforts of many people. Special thanks are due to the artists for exerting themselves to create these engaging and ingenious, experimental works, and to the galleries representing them, Christopher Henry Gallery, New York, NY; Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY; Plus Ultra Gallery, New York, NY; Solomon Projects, Atlanta, GA; Salon 94, and Michael Steinberg Fine Art, both in New York, NY.

Public Programs

Sunset Wednesdays Meet the Artists , 7:15pm
June 14, Marguerite Kahrl & Paul Ruff demonstrate their solar-powered lawn mower and talk about inventing environment- friendly prototypes.

June 21, Phil Ross explains his experimental work growing plants in constructed environments.

June 28, Charles Goldman demonstrates his portable solar-powered fountain and discusses the art of creating fountains from industrial materials.

Sunday Performances
July 9, Expand your Olfactory Consciousness! through an interactive performance with Laure Drogoul, 2pm.

July 30, Slide Show by the Chadwicks about discovering Bashford’s Grotto, Jimbo Blachly & Lytle Shaw, 2pm.

August 13, Perched Patio Performance, Austin Thomas leads themed stories in her outdoor patio/social space, 2pm.

August 12, 13, Shard Art, Joan Bankemper leads the Family Art Project to create fanciful mosaic flowerpots from a mix of natural, synthetic and recycled materials. 1-4pm.

Principal funding for the visual arts program is provided by the Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Charitable Trust. Additional support is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the Hess & Helyn Kline Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Sustaining support for Wave Hill is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Arts at Wave Hill are sponsored by

Photography by Stefan Hagen.