The Altered Landscape: Environmental art exhibition extended through March 12, 2010

I'm pleased to announce that "The Altered Landscape" an environmentally themed art exhibition I curated, currently on view in the Lobby Gallery at 499 Park Avenue, New York City,  the 28 story office tower owned and managed by Hines, the international real estate firm, has been extended through March 12, 2010. 

Hines has been an industry leader in sustainable development for over half a century, and this exhibit is a unique way for the firm to draw attention to the building's Energy Star rating, help it reinforce its Green message, and inspire environmentally friendly actions amongst its tenants, visitors, and staff.

The exhibit is open to the public during normal business hours and features the work of five contemporary artists who share a deep understanding of the precariousness of our relationship to the natural world. They use art as leverage to address the pervasive inability of humanity to integrate with the rest of nature. Each artist's distinctive approach conveys these ideas profoundly, capturing our imagination and helping us see things from a new perspective.

Jay Hart 's highly detailed digital images of enhanced distant views of extraordinary natural landforms reveal the history of Earth's geologic processes and natural development. His images give us the ability to literally rise above the clutter of surface detail, to examine the structure of the whole, and to get a palpable sense of the planet as a living organism.

Susquehanna - archival inkjet print 2008t     Courtesy the artist

David Maisel's aerial photographs from his Terminal Mirage series feature exquisite cropped compositions and astonishing color. His intent is to portray the impact that mankind has had on the natural landscape and he creates a dynamic and breathtaking tension between the visual beauty of his images and the staggering environmental devastation they suggest.

Terminal Mirage #25, C-Print 2005    Courtesy the artist and Von Lintel Gallery

Kim Keever constructs and photographs large, dramatic dioramas of geological formations and imaginary worlds in a 100-gallon fish tank in his studio, resulting in expansive atmospheric landscapes. His images recall embedded notions of nature as the embodiment of the sublime, while at the same time, asserting the artificiality of that ideal. Like dreamscapes, these hazy vistas are remote but inviting, exotic but strangely familiar. They present nature as a place of otherworldly ethereal beauty – a place that is ultimately accessible only through the imagination.

Turtle Skull Rock, C Print 2001    Courtesy the Artist and Kinz & Tillou Fine Art

Adapting the visual vocabulary of children’s book illustration to large-scale works, Randy Bolton uses wry humor and irony to explore relations between humans and the physical world. Employing succinct narrative scenarios, Bolton’s work presents human psychology in a perpetual state of contradiction, ambiguity and missed connections, where hope of integration with the natural world may indeed elude us, doomed to be lost in the simple bumbling of our day-to-day existence.

Never Take More Than You Need, 2005 Digital Print on Canvas,  sculptural element 

Courtesy the artist and Littlejohn Contemporary

In her text-based photographs, Stephanie Lempert documents several success stories, where people have begun to take some measure of responsibility for past actions in relation to the natural environment. She presents picturesque images of public parks that are built upon waste sites and overlays the photographs with text that describes details of the conversion process. Her work exudes optimism asserting a re-conception of nature from the ashes of our misdeeds, and proposing the possibility that, if put to the right ends, human ingenuity might find an antidote to human excess.

Fresh Kills Park Digital C-Print, 2008    Courtesy the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery

While scientific and economic arguments for a sustainable future are compelling, it seems that is not enough to convince us to change our ways. In order that we do so, we must first alter our perceptions about our relationship to Nature. Art is a powerful tool for doing this, for it has always helped move society in new directions. Hines' support of this exhibition helps raise awareness about the need to create a sustainable future and stimulate further thought and dialogue about the choices we make, and actions we take, in our homes, our workplace and in our communities.