Shifting Landscapes
While the landscape genre has long been associated with picturesque vistas, Shifting Landscapes considers a more expansive interpretation of the category, exploring how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists as they attempt to represent the world around them. Drawn from the Whitney鈥檚 collection, the exhibition features works from the 1960s to the present and is organized according to distinct thematic sections. Some of these coalesce around material and conceptual affinities: sculptural assemblages formed from locally sourced objects, ecofeminist approaches to land art, and the legacies of documentary landscape photography. Others are tied to specific geographies, such as the frenzied cityscape of modern New York or the experimental filmmaking scene of 1970s Los Angeles. Still others show how artists invent fantastic new worlds where humans, animals, and the land become one. Whether depicting the effects of industrialization on the environment, grappling with the impact of geopolitical borders, or proposing imagined spaces as a way of destabilizing the concept of a 鈥渘atural鈥� world, the works gathered here bring ideas of land and place into focus, foregrounding how we shape and are shaped by the spaces around us.
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While the landscape genre has long been associated with picturesque vistas, Shifting Landscapes considers a more expansive interpretation of the category, exploring how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists as they attempt to represent the world around them. Drawn from the Whitney鈥檚 collection, the exhibition features works from the 1960s to the present and is organized according to distinct thematic sections. Some of these coalesce around material and conceptual affinities: sculptural assemblages formed from locally sourced objects, ecofeminist approaches to land art, and the legacies of documentary landscape photography. Others are tied to specific geographies, such as the frenzied cityscape of modern New York or the experimental filmmaking scene of 1970s Los Angeles. Still others show how artists invent fantastic new worlds where humans, animals, and the land become one. Whether depicting the effects of industrialization on the environment, grappling with the impact of geopolitical borders, or proposing imagined spaces as a way of destabilizing the concept of a 鈥渘atural鈥� world, the works gathered here bring ideas of land and place into focus, foregrounding how we shape and are shaped by the spaces around us.
Artists on show
- Aaron Gilbert
- Agnes Denes
- Alan Michelson
- Alison Saar
- Amalia Mesa-Bains
- Ana Mendieta
- Anita Steckel
- An-My Lê
- Arch Connelly
- Artie Vierkant
- Bessie Harvey
- Carlos Villa
- Carolina Caycedo
- Chioma Ebinama
- Christina Fernandez
- Chuck Ramirez
- Dalton Gata
- David Benjamin Sherry
- Diane Burns
- Emmi Whitehorse
- Enrique Chagoya
- Felipe Baeza
- Firelei Báez
- Gordon Matta-Clark
- Guadalupe Maravilla
- Hiram Maristany
- James Luna
- Jane Dickson
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Jenny Calivas
- Joe Minter
- John Ahearn
- Keith Haring
- Keith Mayerson
- Kenji Nakahashi
- Kunié Sugiura
- LaToya Ruby Frazier
- Laura Aguilar
- Leslie Martinez
- Lonnie Holley
- Luis Jiménez
- María Berrío
- Martha Pettway
- Martin Wong
- Martine Gutierrez
- Maya Lin
- Melvonna Ballenger
- Meriem Bennani
- Michael Joo
- Michelle Stuart
- Miguel Luciano
- Mundo Meza
- Nancy Holt
- Nicole Soto Rodríguez
- Orian Barki
- Park McArthur
- Patrick Martinez
- Peter Hujar
- 笔颈濒颈腻尘辞'辞
- Purvis Young
- Rafa Esparza
- Rigoberto Torres
- Robert Adams
- Salman Toor
- Sonya Kelliher-Combs
- Sophie Rivera
- Suzanne Jackson
- Tabboo!
- Teresita Fernández
- Theo Triantafyllidis
- Trevor Shimizu
- Troy Michie
- Tseng Kwong Chi
- Ulysses Jenkins
- Yuji Agematsu
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Shifting Landscapes, on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, explores how evolving political, ecological, and social issues motivate artists and their representations of the world around them.
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