World-renowned metalsmith Albert Paley’s painted steel gates on the north and south ends of Beal Gardens are inspiring to come upon when strolling through the Beal Botanical Gardens at MSU.
Those who choose to wander under the rare trees and tended rows of MSU’s most venerable gardens must now pass through a heavy, tangled mass of vaguely vegetal spikes and spears. Paley, who lives and works in Rochester, New York, and has a special knack for portals, gates and fences that braid human necessities with natural forms. His Beal Garden gates are stunning in their complexity when viewed up close, but take a few steps away and their dark, flat forms merge with the shadows.