Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks
Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks explores how contemporary artists respond to the traditions, aesthetics, and visual possibilities of scholars’ rocks. Traditionally collected in East Asia as objects for contemplation, these naturally shaped stones are valued as miniature landscapes or portals to larger natural worlds. The exhibition places authentic viewing stones alongside contemporary artworks, inviting reflection on nature, authorship, authenticity, and what makes something a work of art.
The exhibition includes stones loaned from the private collections of Kemin Hu and Timothy A. Springer, as well as recent work by artists with cultural ties to South Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, Boston, and New England. Their varied approaches connect ancient practices of observing nature with questions about climate change, consumption, personal identity, and life in the 21st century. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Donna Dodson.
When: September 20, 2026–January 17, 2027
Venue: Art Complex Museum
Tickets: Price not available
Artists: Kate Gilbert, Paul Harris, Danielle Krcmar, Lisa Tang Liu, Cathy Della Lucia, Andy Moerlein, Wen-hao Tien, Alice Wu, Yu-wen Wu, and Quanzhou Zhao
Curator: Donna Dodson
Exhibition concept: Authentic scholars’ rocks are presented in dialogue with contemporary interpretations by ten artists. The stones have been minimally altered from their natural state, emphasizing their status as objects shaped by geological forces rather than individual artists. Their placement beside contemporary art encourages viewers to consider enduring relationships with the natural world and the meanings assigned to collected objects.
Scholars’ rocks: The tradition is known as Suseok in Korea, Suiseki in Japan, and Gongshi in China. Collectors have valued the stones for their distinctive forms, surfaces, and associations with landscapes, contemplation, and cosmic energy.
Kate Gilbert: Gilbert is a Boston-based artist, curator, and cultural leader, as well as the founder and executive director of the Boston Public Art Triennial. Working in sculpture, video, and installation, she examines the relationships among objects, people, systems, consumption, and everyday habits. Her exhibition work includes *Sidewalk Series 39* (2026), made from cast concrete, found asphalt, and cast concrete objects referencing an Amazon box and Poland Spring.
Paul Harris: Harris is a transdisciplinary artist, poet, and English professor whose work with stones forms part of “The Petriverse of Pierre Jardin.” Influenced by Daoist ideas of scholars’ rocks as concentrations of cosmic energy, he views regionally distinctive stones as expressions of the spirit of place. During an August 2026 residency at Art Complex, he gathered rocks in Massachusetts and Vermont. His work *Stones on Stools* (2020–2026) pairs rocks from his collection with crickets and stools from Paula Trepanier Harris’s collection.
Danielle Krcmar: Krcmar is an independent artist and curator of the RSM Gallery at Bentley University. In her *Post Consumer Terrain* sculptures, she transforms discarded clothing and fabric samples into soft versions of rocks, mosses, sedges, and landscapes. Her work connects urban groundscapes and Chinese scholars’ stones with themes of consumption, disposal, geologic time, and close observation. Her piece *The Little Plot* (2023) uses a found stool, wool, upholstery fabric, yarn, and cotton thread.
Lisa Tang Liu: Liu is a mixed-media artist and Wellesley College alumna whose work has been exhibited throughout the United States. Her perspective on scholars’ rocks is shaped by her experience as a Chinese American and member of the broader ethnic Chinese diaspora. In *Evolution* (2026), she uses cyanotype and cotton thread on paper treated with cold wax. The work incorporates the blue-and-white visual associations of Chinese porcelain, a fortune-cookie motif, nature-based photographic processes, and painted gestures inspired by qi.
Cathy Della Lucia: Born in South Korea, Della Lucia makes modular sculptures from wood, ceramic, and digitally fabricated materials. Her constructions can be dismantled, rearranged, and rebuilt, allowing her to explore the connections among bodies, tools, toys, weapons, domestic objects, labor, ritual, play, and violence. Her work *Table of Contents* (2025) combines MDF, birch plywood, wood, rubber gym flooring, neoprene, hardware, a lazy Susan, 3D-printed PLA, aluminum, paint, and wood and ceramic objects.
Featured works: The page identifies *Sidewalk Series 39* (2026) by Kate Gilbert, *Stones on Stools* (2020–2026) by Paul Harris, *The Little Plot* (2023) by Danielle Krcmar, *Evolution* (2026) by Lisa Tang Liu, and *Table of Contents* (2025) by Cathy Della Lucia. The page also states that each of the ten participating artists contributes recent work, though additional work details are not included in the available text.
Accessibility and logistics: No accessibility information, age guidance, opening hours, showtimes, or related-program details are provided.