This summer, violets, nasturtiums, and hydrangeas escape from the Gardner’s greenhouses and rain down the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade in a site-specific installation by Artist-in-Residence Yu-Wen Wu. Inspired by Isabella's passion for plants and the loving care given to our “Living Collection” by the Museum’s horticulture team, Wu composed a collage of photographs of the Gardner’s flowers, transforming individual blossoms into a windswept shower blooming bright against dark storm clouds.
At once an homage to the fleeting beauty of the natural world and meditation on the precious vulnerability of the environment, Reigning Beauty will crown the Façade from June 17 – October 14, 2025 and is part of this summer’s inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial.
Image Credit: Yu-Wen Wu: Reigning Beauty, 2025 © Yu-Wen Wu.
Photo: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Yu-Wen Wu: Reigning Beauty, 2025 © Yu-Wen Wu
Featured Courtyard Plants
Check out the flip book with photographs of the flowers and plants Yu-Wen Wu took in the Museum's Courtyard and greenhouses to make this collage photographs she took in the Museum’s Courtyard to make this collage or view it below.
About the Artist
Photo courtesy of Mel Taing
Yu-Wen Wu (b.1958, Taipei, Taiwan) is an artist who delves into the interplay between art, science, the natural world, and social and cultural issues. Her diverse body of work includes large-scale drawings, site-specific video installations, community-engaged practices, and public art. Yu-Wen’s artistic practice powerfully reflects her journey as an immigrant, delving into the complexities of migration, the nuances of identity, and global discourse. She invites audiences to reflect on their relationship with the environment and each other, creating immersive experiences that challenge conventional boundaries. Her durational works invite audiences to experience art as a process and enhance the cultural fabric of the communities involved.
Yu-Wen Wu’s work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, DC; Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece; Xippas Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland; Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, MA; Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, NY; the Nielsen Library, Smith College, Northampton, MA; SITE, Santa Fe, NM; Perlman Teaching Museum at Carleton College, Northfield, MN; Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis MN; ICA MECA, Portland, ME; Rosecliff Mansion, Newport, RI; Center for Border Studies, Cucuta, Colombia; and the Praise Shadows Art Gallery, Brookline, MA.
She has received numerous awards, including the inaugural Prilla Smith Brackett Award (Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA), a national grant from the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Brother Thomas Fellowship. In 2023. She was awarded the James and Audrey Foster Prize with a solo exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.
EXPLORE THE OTHER EXHIBITIONS
Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden
Hostetter Gallery
Flowers For Isabella
Fenway Gallery
Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden and Yu-Wen Wu: Reigning Beauty, 2025 are supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Amy and David Abrams, the Barr Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, Wagner Foundation, the Barbara Lee Program Fund, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fredericka and Howard Stevenson, and Yuchun and Agustina Lee.
Flowers for Isabella is supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Amy and David Abrams, the Barr Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, Wagner Foundation, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fredericka and Howard Stevenson, Yuchun and Agustina Lee, and by an endowment grant from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Yu-Wen Wu: Reigning Beauty, 2025, is featured as part of the Boston Public Art Triennial 2025.
The Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by Lizbeth and George Krupp and directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art. Funding is also provided for site-specific installations of new work on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way.
The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
