Origami, meaning “folding paper” in Japanese, reflects the essence of creativity: making something out of (basically) nothing. Start with a simple square piece of paper. Apply the art of origami, folding the paper in a creative way to produce an elegant object—a soaring bird, gliding plane, galloping pony, floating boat, or an emerging butterfly. Artist Kevin Box takes origami to another level, transforming paper into museum quality metal sculpture through processes he has pioneered in teamwork with foundries, fabrication shops, and his studio staff.
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN, an exhibition created by Santa Fe artists Jennifer and Kevin Box, features Box’s own compositions as well as collaborations with world-renowned origami artists Robert J. Lang, Te Jui Fu, Beth Johnson and Michael G. LaFosse. These remarkable artworks feel at home in the wondrous setting of botanical gardens, since paper originates in plant life and origami is made of paper. Gardens and art are both openings into broader connections around the globe, over time, and between the human and natural worlds. And gardens, like origami, begin with little—the tiniest of seeds—and burgeon through artful attention into glorious displays of flowers, bushes, and trees.
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN can be experienced in two exhibition sizes; a monumental show and a larger heroic scaled show.
OiG Monumental Show includes 13 large-scale outdoor sculptures & 8 pieces for an interior educational exhibit, ‘Inside Out’. Flying birds, emerging butterflies, floating boats and soaring paper airplanes are just a few of the subjects featured in the show. The crown jewel of the exhibition is Master Peace, a 25 foot tall sculpture of 1,000 stainless steel origami peace cranes. 500 of the cranes gather together in the monument and 500 are scattered into the world as individual collector pieces. A black granite base (or pond) below the monument serves as a mirror that reflects all 1,000 cranes keeping them together forever. Seeing this work of art in person is a powerful experience.
View our online catalog of ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN, the Monumental Exhibition: OiG Catalog.
FLORIGAMI is the newest traveling exhibition featuring up to 18 heroically-sized installations of nearly 70 museum-caliber sculptures inspired by origami – the centuries-old Japanese art of folding paper – created by Santa Fe artists Jennifer and Kevin Box in their largest outdoor display to date. Monumental sculptures, inspired from paper are now either fabricated or cast into metal pieces — of flying birds, emerging butterflies, blooming flowers, grazing deer and other flora and fauna themes.
Another highlight of the show is “Inside Out,” an educational exhibit in Gardenhouse Gallery that features original paper models and unfolded wall hangings by nationally and internationally renowned origami artists, showing the internal architecture of each piece.
“Origami animals, blooming flowers, crumpled ideas and innovative abstraction are all themes that inform the surface of my work,” Kevin Box said. “Every piece has a title, a reason and a purpose in contributing to the story I am telling beneath the surface. Motivating the content of the work are my concepts of truth, my philosophy of chaos and consciousness, creation and evolution, the process of creativity and relationships, and responsibilities to one another.”
Watch: ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Documentary STREAM HERE
A short video of ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN at: OiG Video.
A longer video documentary by NOVA called The Origami Revolution.
Experience: A virtual tour of ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN at Naples Botanical Garden.
A virtual tour of the studio and sculpture garden where ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN is created.
Past Exhibitions:
Fort Worth Botanic Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN FLORIGAMI 2023-24
Las Cruces Museum of Art
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Museum Show 2023
Huntsville Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2023
Museum of Shenandoah Valley
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2022
Atlanta Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN FLORIGAMI 2022
Missouri Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2021
Reiman Gardens
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2021
Wellfield Botanic Gardens
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2021
San Antonio Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2020-21
Dow Gardens
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2019
Cape Fear Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2019
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2018-19
Memphis Botanic Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2018-19
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2018
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2018
Tucson Botanical Gardens
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental 2017-18
Price Tower Arts Center
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Fundamental & Inside Out 2018
The Morton Arboretum
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2017
Naples Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2016-17
Artis-Naples, Home of the Baker Museum and the Naples Philharmonic
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2016-17
Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2016
Santa Fe Botanical Garden
ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN Monumental 2014