Epiphany Center for the Arts - Wunderkammer

Press Release:
Exhibit Announcement: "Wunderkammer" – A Series of Paintings by Renee Robbins

Location: Epiphany Center for the Arts | Aug. 1 – Sept. 13, 2025
Opening Reception Friday Aug. 1 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. RSVP here

Super Star, 20” x 27” framed, gouache and watercolor, acrylic & colored pencil on paper.

Renowned artist Renee Robbins presents Wunderkammer, a captivating series of paintings that explore the awe-inspiring connections between the natural world, the cosmos, and our imaginations. Drawing inspiration from both the subatomic and the astronomical, Robbins invites viewers on a journey into a universe of discovery, where the boundaries between the real and the imagined blur.

Wunderkammer, meaning "cabinet of curiosities," features a collection of works that evoke wonder and fascination, much like the eclectic curiosities of an early naturalist’s cabinet. Through a range of vivid imagery—spanning from hybrid flora and fauna to celestial bodies and deep-sea creatures—Robbins creates a luminous, abstract world filled with organic forms, dots, circles, and hieroglyphic-like marks. Her works span a diverse range of subjects, including cells, flowering botanicals, aquatic species, and constellations. All of these subjects are woven together in a dynamic circular format which echoes the shape of a cell, planet, or target.

Each painting in the Wunderkammer series offers a fresh perspective on the complexity and beauty of the natural world, while leaving space for personal interpretation and reflection. Robbins combines the tangible with the imagined, expanding our awareness of nature's wonders and encouraging a sense of magic that resides both in the observable and in the realm of the fantastical.

The exhibition promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of the unseen connections that bind humanity, nature, and the cosmos, offering visitors an opportunity to reflect on the diverse forms and mysteries that shape our universe.

Join us for the opening of Wunderkammer, and prepare to experience the world through a new, enchanted lens.

ABOUT
Renee Robbins is a Chicago-based visual artist known for her otherworldly creations that fuse the natural and the fantastical. Robbins has made a significant mark in the public art sphere, receiving high-profile commissions from organizations such as the Chicago Public Art Group, the Wabash Arts Corridor, and Illinois' Art-In-Architecture program. Her work has been featured in numerous prestigious exhibitions, including at the Lois Lambert Gallery in Santa Monica, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, and the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art in Midland, MI.  Her unique artistic vision has captured the attention of both local and national media, with features in PBS WTTW Chicago Tonight, Chicago Gallery News, Chicago Magazine, Inside/Within, and a celebrated audio interview on Ahtcast. In an intriguing twist, the forms in Robbins' paintings were even classified by a diatom taxonomist for an artist feature on the US Diatoms database at the University of Colorado, further blurring the line between art and science.  Robbins' dedication to her craft has earned her recognition in the form of multiple honors, including three grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.  Having received her MFA from Michigan State University, Robbins is currently celebrating 18 years of creating and thriving as an artist in Chicago, where her work continues to evolve, inspiring curiosity and wonder in all who encounter it.

For more information and to RSVP to the opening reception

Gallery visiting hours
Most of our galleries are open to the public during our regular scheduled music events, including our free Golden House series Wed-Sat 5-8pm.

Check Epiphany's home page, which has the Golden Hour calendar.
The Sacristy Gallery will always be open for Golden Hour, unless the date is blacked out on the calendar, which means there's a private event happening

To schedule a viewing appointment, please reach out via email with a few
preferred days/times for an appointment: art@epiphanychi.com

Epiphany Center for the Arts
201 S Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607

 

Pisces Season - Aquatic Art

Today we are entering Pisces season. That happens to be my zodiac sign! ♓️🐟🐟

Pisces are highly sensitive and are typically extreme empaths. I am very creative, artistic, compassionate, empathetic, and intuitive. I definitely align with these personality traits and emotions.

Let’s go deep into unknown waters. Water can change flow from a waterfall to a drop. Water is symbolically associated with unconscious intuition. There is so much exciting symbolism and poetry associated with this subject.

My art often evokes the ocean and aquatic creatures. My work also incorporates stars and constellations both real and imagined. What’s your zodiac sign?

Swelling Serenade, 20” x 20”, acrylic on canvas

Detail of Drawbridge.

Wishbone, 20” x 20”, acrylic on canvas.

Allure, 24” x 24” acrylic on canvas.

On Edge, 20” x 26”, acrylic on canvas.

On the Way, 20” x 26”, acrylic on canvas.

Detail of Drawbridge.

Lure, 30” x 30”, acrylic on canvas.

 

Breathing Holes - A Closer Look

First piece to share from in a new series CULTIVATING WONDER.

 

I’ve been having this reoccurring artist fantasy where I become a painter who makes minimalist work. This is the opposite of me as I’m more of a maximalist in terms of form and image, yes? The voice inside my head was loud enough and repeated enough that I decided to begin a new series with that goal or structure in mind.  I have attempted to make minimalist work before. However, there are many layers with anything I do in art and with every choice I make. Why I do something and all of the formal and conceptual choices that I make have a lot of consideration and deep meaning to me. It’s like peeling an onion but more complex and includes different colors.

 

“Breathing Holes”, 16” x 20”, Gouache and Aerosol on paper, 2024.

This series came about after a proposal with a disappointing outcome. Instead of complaining that the project didn’t go the way I’d hoped, I set out right to work. I started painting a new piece after I sulked for a bit longer in private than I would have liked. I turned drawings into something else that was meaningful to me that I have control over. I plan for ~60 pieces in the series (until my attention gets pulled elsewhere) with about 35 in process so far.  ✅✅  I thrive with having a lot of pieces in process in my studio at one time. Currently, I have about 70 works in process in my studio. They are in a few different series and not are in this CULTIVATING WONDER series.

 

I created 250 original and unique digital drawings that are abstracted silhouettes in 4 categories of shapes including river, forest, cosmic and subatomic forms. This green one is the forest shape category. I have not done much digital drawing until last year. I have been trying to learn to draw digitally since 2019 but I have been avoiding as I prefer to draw with pencils and brushes. This is another tool and I want to do more digital drawings in my future.

“Let everyone else decide whether it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they're deciding, make even more art.” —Andy Warhol.

Digital Drawing, 2024.

 

The artwork title is borrowed from a song lyric in arguably the best Nirvana song or at least one of my very favorites if I had to choose just one. It’s called “Verse Chorus Verse” or  “Sappy”. It’s a B-side that they did not release on an album so you might not have heard it.  It was released as a hidden track on the “no alternative” compilation album sold a AIDS benefit album. Back in the day I had this song on a cassette tape dubbed from a dub from a dub. Now, you can listen to it on the Internet wherever you want. As a youth in the 90s in Granger, Indiana a suburb of South Bend we separated ourselves from the popular mainstream Nirvana loser fans (as we called them) because we had dubs of the B-sides and had also owned and listened to their first album BLEACH before they got big. We self-identified as punk rock. I wasn’t in a band, but I hung out with musicians and artists. I don’t remember how we got those dubs, but we had them and we knew we were cooler than all of them. 😂

 

The CULTIVATING WONDER series is all about using shape to cultivate our sense of wonder and awe. Viewers are invited to use and tend to their imagination just like they would a tend to a garden. 🪴

A song by Nirvana
”Sappy” or Verse Chorus Verse Song Lyrics

And if you save yourself
You will make him happy
He'll keep you in a jar
And you'll think you're happy

He'll give you breathing holes
And you'll think you're happy
He'll cover you with grass
And you'll think you're happy now

You're in a laundry room
You're in a laundry room
The clues that came to you, oh

And if you cut yourself
You will think you're happy
He'll keep you in a jar
Then you'll make him happy

He'll give you breathing holes
Then you'll think you're happy
He'll cover you with grass
Then you'll think you're happy now

You're in a laundry room
You're in a laundry room
The clues that came to you, oh

You're in a laundry room
You're in a laundry room
The clues that came to you, oh

And if you fool yourself
You will make him happy
He'll keep you in a jar
Then you'll think you're happy

He'll give you breathing holes
Then you will seem happy
You'll wallow in the shit
Then you'll think you're happy now

You're in a laundry room
You're in a laundry room
You're in a laundry room
The clues that came to you, oh

 

Lightness & Being Exhibit

SoNa CHICAGO Contemporary Art
Lightness & Being group exhibition
Nov. 8, 2024 - Jan. 11, 2025

Opening Reception - West Town/Wicker Park
Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, 6 - 9 pm
1527 N Ashland, Chicago, IL 60622

Gallery hours
F 5-7 pm
Sa 12-4 pm

LIGHTNESS & BEING


How do we maintain serenity and peace within when forces outside of us are ambiguous and even tumultuous? How do we feel joy, share love, work, and create in times of uncertainty? What does it mean to “be” when we may feel apprehension about the future. This group show explores how artists interpret and express the idea of lightness and being. The artists selected for the show reflect on time, memories, and what lies ahead. They convey their wonderment at life, nature, spirituality, and our connections to each other. Light streams through the sky, through glass, or from an object. Lightness is interpreted through form, color, and texture. Silence, stillness, and meditation on spaces is conveyed in some of the artwork. Other artists reflect on hardship and how to move through it. The artists make statements with their work that are profoundly positive, and generative. They connect to nature, humanity, and creativity as forces that fill us and can impact society. Questions of what it means to be and how lightness can imbue our consciousness and senses are explored through various media.


Exhibiting Artists:  
Pinar Aral, Sharon Bladholm, Monica J. Brown, reisling dong, Alan Emerson Hicks, Robert  Fields, Mirentxu Ganzarain, Glen Gauthier, Markus Giolas, Fletcher Hayes, Anne Hughes, Ethan Hutchinson, Natalie Jackson, Damien James, Kathleen King, Pauline Kochanski, Loralyn Kumlin, Kim Laurel, Beatriz Ledesma, Antwane Lee, Michael Miller, Rosalina Perez, Corinne Peterson, Diane Ponder, Renee Robbins, Tom Robinson, Julian Sarria, Nicholas Sistler, Paul Gerard Somers, Eve Sopala, Gerardo Villarreal, Kathy Weaver, Glenn Wexler

“Fairy Ring”, Acrylic on canvas, 14”x16”, 2024

My work reflects the diverse world and the power of nature by creating awe and a sense of wonder.  By paying closer attention to our surroundings, we can experience our world with lightness and a deeper awareness of being human in our environment. The work invites us to see magical energy in everyday visual experiences.

Thanks so much to directors Laura and Molly for a fantastic show! Check out all the amazing pieces in the show on the gallery website. They put together a great online viewing experience in addition to the in person show.

 

Deep At Sea - Process

Renee Robbins, Deep at Sea, 3 color screen print, 2013.

The piece considers the shape of waves and the constantly shifting form of water.

Limited artist edition: of 27.
Dimensions: 11.5 x 11.5”
Materials: 3 color screenprint on paper

This print was made in collaboration with classical composer Seth Boustead.
Listen to the Deep at Sea Companion song by Seth here.

ABOUT: The edition was a collaboration between Spudnik Press, Homeroom Chicago, and Access Contemporary Music. The 2013 Ten x Ten project that pairs composers with visual artists to produce a song and print. There were concerts and exhibitions of the project which included 10 visual artists and 10 composers. The original edition set of 200 with prints and a vinyl record is now sold out. I have a few available from the small artist edition created with the project.

MY PROCESS: I made 5 original paintings/drawings preparing ideas and exploring forms for the project. I often call my works on paper drawings even if I use paint. After I did the originals, I next drew three layers with an old fashion quill pen and brush and ink on transparent film. The films were needed to burn screens to produce the different colors of the screen print. The print has three layers of blue. The edition was printed by hand by Chicago printmakers at Spudnik Press.

The print is available in my webstore here.

STUDIES in gouache and colored pencil

Studies for the larger originals which were made first.

Studies for the larger originals which were made first.

Original paintings in gouache and colored pencil

Hand Painted Films
using a Quill Pen, brush, & Ink

hand drawn film layer 1

hand drawn film layer 2

hand drawn film layer 3

Ten x Ten 2013

Ten x Ten, 2013 Edition

Ten x Ten is a collaboration between visual artists and musicians exploring visual and auditory interaction. By challenging artists to conceptualize their work across media, Ten x Ten asks participants stretch and expand their creative process. Through producing a limited edition compilation and public presentation of the resulting artworks, Ten x Ten documents, celebrates, and promotes Chicago’s artistic community.

Ten x Ten 2013 investigates the relationship between color and sound. Through exploring the underlying concepts of synesthesia, both academically and intuitively, artists and composers have worked together to produce artwork that takes the form of both a fine art print and an original score.  This project is presented by Access Contemporary Music, Homeroom, and Spudnik Press.

Featured print and song collaborations:

Lilli Carre and Michael Miller
Edie Fake and Andrew Tham
Jo Dery and Jude Mathews
Aaron Renier and Brain Baxter
Chad Kouri and Marjorie Rusche
Craig Hansen and Betsy Start
Aaron Maurer and Tim Corpus
Ann Worthing and Amos Gillespie
Angee Lennard and Randall West
Renee Robbins and Seth Boustead

The collection of prints includes an LP with ten unique tracks, a hand-printed folio, and a plastic protective sleeve.