Plantas de Poder: Kinships, Knowledges & Reclamation exhibit FREE

A new exhibit at City Hall features work by Sacramento artists exploring the roles plants play in cultural traditions, everyday life and personal memories.

Curated by the City’s Emerging Curator Fellow Lorena Rodríguez, “Plantas de Poder: Kinships, Knowledges & Reclamation” is on display at the Robert T. Matsui Gallery through Dec. 15.

The exhibit features ceramics, printmaking, photography, woodwork and paintings created with natural pigments and inks derived from plants. The works explore seven plants: coca, cacao, tobacco, cannabis, angel’s trumpet (floripondio), tea and coffee.

Through the artwork, Rodríguez invites visitors to consider these plants beyond their commercial uses and learn about their cultural, spiritual and historical significance.
The exhibit was inspired by “Siete Plantas: Historias de la Gente Sin Nombre” (“Seven Plants: Stories of the Nameless People”), a book compiling three years of research by seven women in Colombia, each studying a different plant. Rodríguez said reading the book and listening to its authors shaped her interest in exploring relationships between plants, cultural memory and ancestral knowledge.

The participating Sacramento-based artists are Jaime Lee Dempsey, Abayomi Brownfield, Esme Cabrera, Elizabeth Anne Bezark, Pablo Gomez and Rosalva Willow.

Rodríguez brought together emerging and established artists with different backgrounds, experiences and approaches to art. Each artist’s work reflects their relationship with plants and the natural world.

The exhibit is free to visit Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The gallery is wheelchair accessible.