PlantBot Genetics

Wendy DesChene is a Canadian artist and graduated with an MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art and immediately incorporated materials that would support her activist inspired works. Weary of the limitations placed on art by institutions, she began to invite audience participation into her installations. The outcome was a community collaborative exhibition titled wysiwyg that has toured eleven different communities, including the Art League of Houston, the Minnesota State University, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and The Henry Street Settlement of New York. Other collaborative-based projects have been presented at the Soap Factory and the Tomio Koyama Gallery of Japan. Wendy is the recipient of several fellowships including being twice awarded a Canada Council Travel Grant. Her recent collaborative work, PlantBot Genetics, with artist Jeff Schmuki, has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts and Pulitzer Foundation Grants for exhibitions and/or programming at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Goethe Institute in Egypt, the Bach Modern in Austria, the New Gallery of Canada, and Marfa Dialogues in St. Louis.