Art Gym Gallery is thrilled to exhibit Polytopiary by Mackenzie Browning. Polytopiary consists of paper installations exploring the idea of idyllic communities. Join us for the opening receptioreception on Thursday, April 25 from 5-8PM.

The dichotomy of nature and suburbia that made up Mackenzie Browning’s childhood incites his current day practice. His newest exhibition, Polytopiary, continues to explore the ways in which we humans try to force natural elements into the grids set up to create suburban communities. Creating a new word, Polytopiary combines the Polytope – the geometric term for a three-dimensional object with “flat” sides, and Topiary – the practice of shaping trees and shrubs into ornamental, and often geometric shapes.

The exhibition is made up of multiple installations and sculptures, all of which reference the natural world; shrubs in a bed of mulch contained in a rock border, a tall hedge, grass-covered homes and groupings of mulch. Browning handprints CMYK images to imply the texture of the natural object onto paper, which he then folds into polytope shapes. The combination of the natural and the manmade reflects human’s interactions with our environments through development. When discussing his work, Browning said “these paper installations see beyond the false greenery and into the world of privacy, boundaries, and territory. My installations aim to bring insight into the barriers we create around our lived environments and ourselves.”