By David Ryan Palmer
Assistant Editor

Two artists who revel in the natural world are exhibiting their artwork in Benicia this month in honor of Earth Day 2011.

“That Nature Yet Remembers,” featuring the work of Theresa Ganz and Penelope Krebs, is the first invitational art show at the Marilyn O’Rourke Gallery at the Benicia Public Library.

That’s appropriate, because both Ganz and Krebs incorporate nature into their work, though in different ways.

“The work is amazing,” said library Director Diane Smikahl.

“This is the first time that the gallery has had an invitational showing,” she said. “(We) culled through a number of entries and came up with these two artists. Next year it’s likely to be very different.”

Benicia Arts and Culture Commission Chair Lee Wilder Snider told Smikahl that Ganz’s work moved her.

Wilder Snider “was especially moved by the use of positive and negative space in Ganz’s work. It’s quite stunning,” Smikahl said.

Ganz, 30, works out of New York City but got a masters of fine art in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute, according to her online resumé.

And this isn’t the first time Ganz has been featured in Benicia: In 2006, she was one of the artists in Arts Benicia’s “Cream From the Top: Surfacing Talent from Fine Arts Programs” gallery show.

Krebs was born in Santa Ana, California in 1954. She began her career after receiving a bachelor of arts degree from UC-Santa Barbara, where she pursued abstract painting, according to the biography on her website.

In 2005, Krebs moved to the California high desert and began painting watercolor versions of various species of birds that she discovered on her property.

Both artists are welcome additions to the library’s O’Rourke Gallery, Smikahl said.

“It’s definitely a different type of art,” she said.

Earth Day is commonly celebrated April 22, though some groups and cities begin celebrating it nearly a week in advance. In Benicia, the day will be celebrated April 21.

“That Nature Yet Remembers” runs until May 5. The Benicia Public Library is located at 150 East L St. The gallery is open during normal library hours, Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m, and Friday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.