Lauren Drescher | Swimmers January 22 – February 21, 2026 View works in the exhibition here. This January, Planthouse is pleased to present Swimmers, a solo exhibition by New Zealand-based artist Lauren Drescher. The exhibition brings together a collection of drypoint and relief prints that explore the artist’s enduring relationship with seas, rivers, and lakes, rendered from the intimate vantage point of the swimmer. Drawing on mystical and medieval iconography, Swimmers populates its aquatic worlds with mermaids, sirens, sea creatures, and a mer-child, all imagined from a distinctly female perspective. These figures are not objects of mythic desire, but elemental forces; powerful, playful, and self-possessed. Drescher’s work reclaims these archetypes as icons of autonomy and omnipotence, while also acknowledging the fragility of Mother Nature, our ecosystems, and the bodies of water that sustain us. Created by a peripatetic printmaker who divides her time between New York, the French Pyrenees, and New Zealand, the works in Swimmers are produced using an inventive and transportable technique. Drescher prints from recycled TetraPak cartons, creating featherlight plates that allow her to carry an entire menagerie in a suitcase. The use of reclaimed materials, including found and recycled paper, has been a consistent thread throughout her practice, aligning material processes with ecological consciousness. The imagery in Swimmers originates from Drescher’s notebook sketches, which have over time evolved into a growing compendium of characters and narratives. Due to the delicate nature of the plates, each can produce only a limited number of unique impressions, underscoring the work’s material vulnerability and impermanence. At the heart of the exhibition is a sense of mystery and surrender to the unknown. Drescher returns repeatedly, both literally and figuratively, to this dreamlike aquatic realm. A formative experience several years ago, when she collided with a giant stingray during a solo sea swim far from shore, serves as a quiet touchstone for the work. The encounter, terrifying yet unharming, was a humbling reminder of humanity’s smallness within a vast ecosystem. Risk, vulnerability, and awe coexist in the ocean, offering not only danger but the sublime possibility of belonging. Drescher maintains regular swimming and drawing practices as parallel rituals, each informing the other. Download the exhibition press release here.
