Artists have long been inspired by and sought to represent the elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The four works included in this installation offer a look at the dynamic ways that modern craft artisans—whether working in clay, glass, metal, or wood—have exploited these elements to stretch and manipulate the material potential of their medium. The display features Toots Zynsky’s Spring Grass II (1983), an untitled earthenware object by Graham Marks (1988), Arline Fisch’s Necklace MKN165 “Five Layered Ruffle” (2001), and Michael James Peterson’s Coastal Stack IV (2008). Through abstracted forms that reject singular definition, each of these works evoke one of the four elements both on a visual level and in terms of the artist’s working process.
Elemental Engagement is on view in the museum’s third-floor galleries of modern and contemporary design until spring 2026.