Telfair Museums Commissions Atrium Installation by Katherine Sandoz

SAVANNAH, GA. (December 20, 2018) Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center atrium soon will be transformed by a new installation from Savannah-based artist Katherine Sandoz (American, b. 1969) [pronounced SAHN-doe]. The sculptural work titled katniss will suspend a constellation of abstract botanical shapes from the Jepson Center ceiling beginning January 17, 2019.

Part of a yearlong commission process, the museum’s largest to date, katniss is the result of a creative collaboration between the artist and Rachel Reese, Telfair’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the museum’s dedicated exhibition staff, and Julio Garcia of Price Street Projects, who fabricated the work in Miami.

“Given Katherine’s deep commitment to our arts community, her high level of professionalism, and unique artistic vision, we were excited to invite her to engage with our building and mission in a much larger capacity as an extension of her painting practice,” Reese said.

Dynamic and lively, the sculpture evolves in the manner of the native vegetation that inspired its arrangement. Suspended as unique, layered, and translucently colorful acrylic elements – 108 shapes in all – from 19 points in the ceiling, katniss transforms as visitors shift location and perspective in the atrium.

“In this way, katniss will reveal itself over time, as light conditions change with the seasons and even from day to day,” Reese said. “Given the Jepson Center’s dramatic glass façade, katniss will also be visible from Telfair Square. We’re excited to anticipate how katniss will be enjoyed by Savannahians and visitors for years to come.”

Sandoz will also create a Sagittaria-inspired site-specific painting on the third-floor landing of the Jepson Center, on view January 17 through June 2, 2019.

“Like the katniss plant that served as its inspiration, this project has grown from a very tiny seed of an idea and has taken many, varied shapes throughout its yearlong development,” Sandoz said. “With the installation, viewers see how the curator, the artist, the sculpture, and the site-specific painting engage in conversations about the building, about the language of art, and about our environment both natural and made. And while my name is attributed, the two works are the result of some two dozen collaborators, both working at the museum and around the country, who come from many disciplines and help to bring a project of this size and scope to the Jepson Center.”