The Arthur R. Kinney Center for Renaissance Studies is featuring the exhibit “Elusive Prize: Wonder, Wing, & Transmutation” by Renaissance of the Earth artist-in-residence Brandon Graving through Sept. 20.

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Sculptor and printmaker Graving explores themes of alchemy, science and the human pursuit of an elusive prize in the name of immortality in her exhibit. Inspired by the texts and materials from the Kinney Center’s rare book collection, Graving uses iron gall inks, vellum, historically specific pigments and paper in both sculpture and monoprints to pursue ideas of ambition taking wing in the early modern world and our own. 

Graving often works on a very large scale in mediums that include bronze, neon, paper, resins, steel and wood. She is the owner and master printmaker at Gravity Press Experimental Print Shop, which holds one of the largest platen presses in the world.

The Renaissance of the Earth is a publicly engaged humanities project that brings together a series of interdisciplinary research collaborations, undergraduate and graduate courses, hands-on workshops, curated exhibitions and arts programming to consider how legacies of the early modern past inform our environmental future. 

The Kinney Center, located at 650 E. Pleasant Street in Amherst, is open Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.