DeBerry Gallery Reopens to Visitors

Framed artwork along the wall of a gallery

After over a year without visitors, our DeBerry Gallery for Botanical Art & Illustration is back open and hosting a new exhibit. Survivors, a series of watercolor collages by Hillsborough artist Jennifer Miller, explores the difference between wildflowers and weeds with bright colors and lively textures.

After decades as a landscape painter, Jennifer Miller turned last year to tearing, cutting, and gluing watercolors on paper to express her angst about global warming. She wanted to tell a story about “weeds.” They have long intrigued her, especially those once valued before green lawns were the standard.

Experimenting with new techniques without a clear plan, allowed Miller to go deeper into her feelings about our disturbed future. “My studio floor showed the struggle – a whirlwind of paper bits, watercolor stains on the old floorboards,” she says. She created and deconstructed collages; finally, a collage emerged intact. Styles continue to change – some are complex, some are simple, some are not weeds. All are in tribute to nature.

The artwork in this show is for sale in person in our Garden Shop. 30% of proceeds returns to the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

Visit the gallery inside our main Allen Education Center building, open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Masks are required indoors, and we ask that no more than four people (unless they are part of the same pod) explore the gallery at one time. Learn more about visiting the Garden here.