Some of the best moments of summer take place at a carnival. Whether it’s sitting on a ferris wheel or eating cotton candy, carnivals are expressions of fun and excitement that punctuate the best parts of summer. Planthouse’s Carnival, a group show featuring nine artists, hopes to similarly create a celebratory expression of community and joy in the gallery. Carnival brings together different mediums of art and artists, from monoprints to ceramics, from drawing to sculpture. In addition, each artist’s creative process has an element of whimsy, ultimately unifying ti create a festive summer show.

Juan Pablo Baene
Based on a folkloric dance dating back to Colombian independence, Juan Pablo Baene’s series of new works titled The Dance of the Coyongos whimsically embodies the spirit of a carnival. Each bird drawing possesses its own story and personality, unifying to display Baene’s vision regarding color, celebration, and the unique and collective history of the Coyongos. 

View The Dance of the Coyongos checklist here.

Deb Chaney
Greatly influenced by travel, Deb Chaney’s work is a study and reflection of other cultures and environments. Reminiscent of textile and fabric design, it also draws upon ideas of a sequence of time, flashes of memory, and musical vibrations, while simultaneously challenging the perception of visual and physical space. 

View Chaney’s checklist here.

Louise Eastman
Inspired by the game Twister, Louise Eastman stitched a cotton quilt for Carnival, continuing her exploration of the visual language of games.

View Twister Quilt 1. here.

Margaret Garrett
Terpsichore, the muse of dance, inspired Margaret Garrett’s series of monoprints titled From Terpsichore’s Garden. Published in collaboration with Planthouse, Garrett’s work investigates color combinations, movement, and iconography.

View Garrett’s monoprint series here. 

Margaret Lanzetta
Margaret Lanzetta’s crown-themed works, Almost Enlightment, provide a lexicon of motifs used to explore larger issues of nefarious political power, decorative arts, and cultural migration.

View Lanzetta’s crown prints here.

Peter Schenck
Peter Schenck’s colorful cartoon-like figures contain faces and bodies that have been torn apart and re-configured. These strange constructions incorporate an abstraction of human instincts, Schenck’s visual representation of attention seeking and camouflage. 

View Schenck’s Carnival works here.

Louise Sheldon
Louise’s Sheldon’s vibrant intimate watercolors are playful and full of whimsy. Her anagrammatic portraits exude the power of the flower!

View Sheldon’s watercolors here.

David B. Smith
Within a carnival game or booth, coveted prizes line the wall—David B. Smith’s stuffed and threaded sculptures investigate those objects. Smith’s references are open-ended, an exercise in remembering our past.

View Smith’s sculptures here.

Janis Stemmermann
Using swamp maple from fallen trees, Janis Stemmermann repurposes nature’s debris by inlaying red clay flowers into sanded logs. The final results merge decorative floral elements with pieces of the natural landscape, a notion that also inspired Stemmermann’s series of hand thrown bowls.

View Stemmermann’s ceramics here.