Press Releases
San Clemente, CA – Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, a nonprofit southern California cultural center, has commissioned Minnesota-based public artist Christopher Lutter-Gardella to create a site-specific installation to open the Casa Coastal gallery program for the 2020/21 Season.
The exhibition, titled Magic in the Air, opens on June 25, 2021 and will be on view through September 4, 2021.
“Christopher Lutter-Gardella elevates simple paper-craft into immersive, kinetic art forms — with a riveting message,” says Executive Director Amy Behrens. “His deliberate use of materials saved from landfills and storm water drains are a call to action; it’s a transformative statement about our role in our ecosystem. Casa Romantica — as both a center for culture and public gardens — has a responsibility to give our community the tools to educate themselves about the important role that pollinators have on our ecosystem, and our future.”
Magic in the Air will be a fully interactive exhibition inside Casa Romantica’s Art Gallery. It will feature pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and ladybugs creatively made up of waste stream materials such as plastic utensils for the eyes of the insects. Centered in each room will be giant mobiles that will swirl around guests. Guests are encouraged to touch pieces, lay down in the exhibit room and truly immerse themselves in the atmosphere.
“We, humans […] are sustained; we are gathered-round-about by the forces of Nature. All things conspire to make us possible. We depend upon so much–even upon the smallest, and most humble,” says Lutter-Gardella, “Let this exhibit bee a gathering of pollinators, here to remind us to care for them, even as they care for us.”
To help support the exhibition, Casa Romantica will be hosting four workshops with the Artist for all ages. Each workshop will allow participants to construct the insects that will be used in the exhibition. Casa Romantica will also be rolling a tiered fundraising program that will give donors the opportunity to have their name displayed in the gallery, take part in a private garden tour or have a dinner with the Artist. For more information on events related to Magic in the Air, visit CasaRomantica.org.
About Christopher Lutter-Gardella
Christopher Lutter-Gardella is a designer, sculptor, public artist, and community educator. Lutter-Gardella produces art predominately from waste stream materials, which explores the unique potential inherent in materials. He works to inspire and facilitate original thinking in the realms of theatrical, educational, and public-art design. A deep emphasis is placed upon eco-consciousness, resourcefulness, integration, and improvisation.
Winner of the Minneapolis Creative City Challenge for Wolf and Moose (2016), Lutter-Gardella’s other works have been featured annually at Holidazzle Minneapolis, and Kaleidoscope (2019) at Mall of America.
