October 5, 2024–January 12, 2025
Nancy Macko, Odalisque, 2020. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of the artist.
Artist and Scripps College professor Nancy Macko’s new body of work, Decompositions, transports viewers through art history and the cycles of life. In more than 40 photographs of her kitchen compost bin, Macko transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Discarded onion and garlic skins, apple peels, cauliflower florets, asparagus stalks, and artichoke leaves create both ethereal and earthy scenes. The images are simultaneously realistic and abstract, evoking artistic traditions from the Renaissance to Surrealism. A visual alchemy of art and science, loss and transformation, the exhibition is a striking exploration of scale and time as well as a serene meditation on decay as a new beginning.
“In these works,” notes art historian and Scripps College Professor Emerita Dr. Mary MacNaughton, “fluid space and diaphanous color seduce, then startle viewers, as they slowly realize that the forms depicted are decomposing vegetables . . . . During 2020, the COVID-19 year of social isolation, Macko began this photographic series when, as she explains, ‘my home was my solace’ and the ‘kitchen compost became a great source of inspiration for me, as it represented not only what scraps we could recycle, but also the love and care that went into the preparation of our food.’”
Decompositions is curated by Dr. Erin M. Curtis, Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Director of Scripps College’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. Dr. Curtis hails Macko as a “groundbreaking queer and ecofeminist artist” and likens her photographs to “French theorist Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias as enumerated in The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences: unsettling spaces that both mirror and distort the realities beyond their boundaries.” “Ultimately,” comments Curtis, “Decompositions reveals the infinite possibilities of the everyday, the discoveries that await those who seek.”
Publication
Decompositions: Photography by Nancy Macko is accompanied by an illustrated publication featuring a foreword by Curtis as well as essays by Dr. Linde B. Lehtinen, Philip D. Nathanson Senior Curator of Photography at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens; art historian and Scripps College Professor Emerita Dr. Mary MacNaughton; and Contributing Editor to Art in America, art critic, and author Eleanor Heartney.
Programs
Join the Williamson Gallery for these free, public events presented in conjunction with Decompositions: Photography by Nancy Macko. Click on the event for more information and to reserve your space!
Scripps Presents Greenhouse Art Series: Decompositions Opening Reception
Saturday, October 5 | 7–9 PM
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
Enjoy food, drinks, live music, and a first glimpse of Decompositions. Presented in partnership with Scripps Presents and the California Botanic Garden.
Botanical Art & Science: Leaf Skeletons
Sunday, October 20 | 2–4 PM
California Botanic Garden
By stripping away the soft parts of the leaf, leaf skeletons allow us to see the vascular system that supports the life of a plant. Celebrate autumn by turning whole leaves into leaf skeletons and preparing them to create botanical art. Learn from a botanist about the science behind leaf skeletons (called cleared leaves by scientists) and work to create your own leaf skeleton sampler from a variety of California native plants. Presented in partnership with California Botanic Garden.
Scripps Presents Greenhouse Art Series: Linde B. Lehtinen
Thursday, October 24 | 7–9 PM
Balch Auditorium and Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
The Huntington Library’s Philip D. Nathanson Senior Curator of Photography, Linde B. Lehtinen, offers a deep into the history of botanical photography, followed by a conversation with artist Nancy Macko and a tour of Decompositions. Presented in partnership with Scripps Presents and made possible by the Alexa Fullerton Hampton Fund.
Lecture, Gallery Tour, and Tea
Tuesday, January 7, 2025 | 2 PM
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
Don’t miss this last chance to view Decompositions! Artist Nancy Macko will discuss her newest body of work and guide visitors through the exhibition. Presented in partnership with the Scripps Fine Arts Foundation.
Donor Support
Decompositions, its companion publication, and related programs have been made possible through the generous support of:
Benjamin Moore & Co. and Catalina Paints
Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin
Jennifer Bradley Caballero
Sally Strauss and Andrew E. Tomback
Scripps College Dean of Faculty Research Funds
Scripps Fine Arts Foundation
The Jean and Arthur Ames Endowment
The Mary Davis MacNaughton Endowment