Program Details
Gallery (Ash) is a hopeful consideration of the ecological upheaval of emerald ash borer infestation and our collective cultural relationship to displaced “invasive species.” Visually, this installation highlights the intricate tunnels, called galleries, carved by these beetles into the living tissue of their tree hosts, setting death in conversation with both the growth that will fill the gaps in the canopy and the abundant proliferation of a displaced beetle.
Location
Park Hall Grounds
307 Polk Street
Sauk City, WI 53583
- Installation
- Outside
Contributor
Max Sorenson (he/him)
maxcsorenson.com
Instagram: @maxcsorenson
Max Sorenson is an ecological restorationist and artist working to examine and expand what human stewardship of land might look like in an era of declining biodiversity and bioabundance. In 2025, he was an Artist-in-Residence at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Clermont, KY, where he created a large-scale, text-based, participatory installation focused on ecological disturbance and the site’s land-use history. Max has also been a resident artist at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Cedar Point Biological Station, and Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge in Bocas del Toro, Panamá. He has shown work throughout the Midwest and in New Mexico, where he was a 2024 Emerging Artist at Strata Gallery in Santa Fe. Max holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Biology from Grinnell College in rural Iowa and is currently based in La Crosse, WI.