Objects for a Heavenly Cave is a group exhibition of contemporary works that explore the materiality and mythos of the grotto. The exhibition takes as its starting point the European Renaissance grotto and its diverse permutations, imagining the creation and furnishing of these sensorily-rich, natural-artificial spaces as a prompt for contemporary practice. The Renaissance grotto was an aesthetic laboratory: stalactites ‘grew’ with the help of hidden water spouts, moss crept over lava rock walls, and microorganisms deteriorated marble sculptures. Grottoes were sites where artists engaged in spatial design, designers abdicated utility in favor of the irrational, and craftspeople collaborated with scientists. This multi-disciplinarity and inclusivity made them instrumental for feminine, queer, and postcolonial space making. Taking its title from the first scholarly monograph on the grotto, Naomi Miller’s Heavenly Caves: Reflections on the Garden Grotto, the exhibition animates these histories and posits the grotto as a model for expansive material practices today.