Reflecting diverse voices, exploring themes on equity, justice, and the impact of nature
Exhibitions
The Brushwood Gallery has a long history of exhibitions. We are in the process of moving that archive to our current website.
At Ease in Nature 2025
November 9 – 30, 2025
At Ease in Nature is an art exhibition that features artwork created during our 2025 At Ease programs, as well as work inspired by experiences in nature from members of the Military Community.
The 2025 exhibition highlighted the diversity that can be found in nature and in the armed forces, making each stronger than they would be without it.
Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You
Lydia Cheshewalla
September 7 – November 3, 2025
Lydia Cheshewalla is an Osage ephemeral artist from Oklahoma, living and working in motion throughout the Great Plains ecoregion. Through the creation of site-specific land art and ephemeral installations grounded in Indigenous land stewardship practices and kinship pedagogies, Lydia engages in multivocal conversations about place and relationship.
Before Dreams Are The Last Place We Find You is on view at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods from September 7 – November 2, 2025. This exhibition is an ephemeral, site-specific installation by Cheshewalla, created during her August residency at the Center for Humans & Nature in Libertyville, Illinois.
Rooted in the Shadow of Coal: Botanical Treasures of the Waukegan Dunes
July 13 – August 31, 2025
Brushwood Center presents a new exhibition, Rooted in the Shadow of Coal: Botanical Treasures of the Waukegan Dunes. It is presented in partnership with the Driehaus Museum to explore perspectives on art and nature in association with their summer exhibition featuring acclaimed botanical artist Rory McEwen, Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature.
Rooted in the Shadow of Coal embraces the tradition of botanical art while expanding to include a wider range of artists and media, all focused on the resilient plants of the Waukegan Dunes. Each artwork in the show includes a reference to at least one, and sometimes several, of these botanical wonders. What has proximity to pollution done to the site? What does it mean to have this surviving and thriving natural environment next to coal ash ponds? In this exhibition, botanical art becomes a lens to consider health, equity, and nature.
