Stepping into the newly renovated Renwick Gallery on Pennsylvania Avenue is like walking into an art lover’s dream. With high white walls and ceilings, complete with LED lighting, the building has attracted thousands of locals and tourists alike since its reopening in November 2015. The opening exhibit, titled “Wonder” invites the visitor to explore his or her own definitions of the word, prompted by large-scale works made from unexpected materials. Each work is site-specific, and was crafted by one of nine featured contemporary artists. According to the gallery, “the works are expressions of process, labor, and materials that are grounded in our everyday world, but that combine to produce awe-inspiring results.” The funky modern art and Instagram-worthy aesthetic has made the Renwick a hotspot for aspiring artists, tourists and teens alike.
The first glimpse through the door offers a grand staircase draped with a burnt orange carpet, resembling a paint drop rolling down them and pooling at the bottom. The subsequent works follow the same extraordinary mold, from towers six feet high made of index cards by Tara Donovan to a rainbow made with six miles of thread by Gabriel Dawes. There is even an installation which visitors are encouraged to lie on the floor and look up at, which features hand-woven net covering a massive ceiling, and colored lights flowing through, engulfing the room. But perhaps the most talked about work is the fuschia-painted room with thousands of dead bugs arranged in skull formations by Jennifer Angus.
In typical DC fashion, the gallery has as much history as it does art; it was built at 1661 Pennsylvania Ave NW by William W. Corcoran in the middle of the eighteenth century, as a space to house his personal collection of both American and European art. After the Corcoran Museum moved to a larger space, the United States Court of Claims took over the increasingly decrepit building. When the Court outgrew the space, a proposition was made to demolish the building and construct a larger one in its place. However, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy ran the successful campaign to save the gallery, as a part of a plan to restore Lafayette Square and preserve its treasures. She wrote on the subject, “It may look like a Victorian horror, but it is really quite a lovely and precious example of the period of architecture which is fast disappearing. I so strongly feel that the White House should give the example in preserving our nation’s past.” Her efforts were recognized, and in 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson turned the gallery over to the Smithsonian Institute, where it housed the contemporary craft program of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
The Renwick formerly hosted installations surrounding antique furniture and crafts. In 2014, the space underwent a 30 million dollar renovation in order to make it more appealing to an evolving audience. “It’s not enough to update the building,” said Elizabeth Broun, the Renwick’s director, “We have to rethink.” This modernization ties in with the theme of the opening, says Nicholas Bell, The Fleur and Charles Bresler Senior Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art: “The experience of ‘Wonder’ is deeply intertwined with how we experience art, and why these nine artists create the works they do. They are each masters of constructing works that startle us, overwhelm us and invite us to marvel—to wonder—at their creation. These elements matter in the context of this museum, devoted to the skilled working of materials in extraordinary ways.”
The public’s response has been overwhelmingly positive, as visitors took to Yelp to share their critiques and experiences. Mimi C. of Washington, DC, compared the gallery to the Whitney Museum of New York City and the Broad Museum in Los Angeles: “[They are willing] to step outside the classic and into the quirky and modern space. They take modern day movements and mash them into a spectacular minimalist space that focuses on the oddity of the modern day.”
Meredith V. of Alexandria, VA, reiterated the positive sentiments:
“Beautiful. Thought-provoking. Inspiring. Unconventional. The grand re-opening of Renwick was everything I heard and more.”
The Renwick Gallery is making the DC art scene accessible and enjoyable to everyone. Its contemporary feel is manifested in its stray from the norm. In fact, rather than “No pictures please,” signs read, “Photography is encouraged.”
The Renwick Gallery is open from 10 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. daily.
