Visual art

PRESENCE OF PLANTS IN CONTEMPORARY ART This exhibition is a living, breathing thing, at least for the most part; the five artists (or teams) in the show work with living plant matter to create both a paean to the thriving natural world and a warning of its fragility in this era of environmental despoilment and climate disaster. Participants are the British team Ackroyd & Harvey; Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans; Los Angelesbased conceptual artist Piero Golia; Swedish artist Henrik Hakansson; and American multimedia artist Rashid Johnson. A film piece by Hong-Kong artist Zheng Bo will appear in the museum’s Fenway Gallery. Through Oct. 2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. 617566-1401, www.isgm.org.

GUADALUPE MARAVILLA: MARIPOSA RELÁMPAGO When Maravilla was 8 years old, he fled El Salvador’s then-raging civil war and picked his way north to the United States, where he was eventually reunited with his family. In the years following, he suffered bouts of illness, both mental and physical, that he attributes to the trauma of war and migration; in searching for ways to heal, he discovered the therapeutic potential of sound, which he incorporates in his work. “Mariposa Relámpago” is part of the artist’s Disease Thrower series, a talismanic enterprise built from materials the artist collects revisiting the hazardous byways of his path to freedom all those years ago — and, of course, a series of gongs to make the healing complete. Through Sept. 4. The Institute of Contemporary Art’s Watershed, 256 Marginal St. 617478-3100, www.icaboston.org.

TONY SARG: GENIUS AT PLAY If you ever wondered who came up with the idea of gigantic floating balloons of cartoon animals for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, look no further: Sarg, an illustrator, animator, puppeteer, designer, entrepreneur, and showman, is the guy. With the wonderfully uplifting distinction of being the father of modern puppetry in North America, Sarg, who died in 1942, is the subject of this first-ever comprehensive survey of his work at the Norman Rockwell Museum. Through Nov. 5. Norman Rockwell Museum, 9 Route 183, Stockbridge. 413-2984100, www.nrm.org

MURRAY WHYTE

ANN WESSMANN: CYCLE The Boston artist no longer lives full time in her childhood home in Scituate, but she still tends the yard there. For this show, she retrieved and assembled nuts, twigs, and leaves shed from a horse chestnut tree and clippings from a Japanese barberry hedge that borders the property to create art that reflects on the cycle of life, the passage of time, the things we let go of, and the prickly struggles of the present moment. Through July 2. Kingston Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave. 617423-4113, www.kingstongallery.com

CATE McQUAID