Curatorial Statement
We hunt and gather that which surrounds us, feeding not only our physical bodies, but also our desires. Bounty entails a sense of a copious yield, of giving and of generosity. Cultivating and harvesting can also be a zero sum game-when something is given, it must also be taken. Exchanges of this sort can be life sustaining and enriching, but they can also be inequitable and contradictory. “Bounty of the Land” explores this give and take relationship as it relates to landscapes both tangible and psychological.
As humans, the landscape becomes a vessel that contains us. For better or worse, we possess the agency to shape it according to our needs. Artists of the Hudson River school used painting to reflect the vast, sublime qualities of the American landscape, which also became a metaphor for ambition, hubris and ultimately, Manifest Destiny. “Bounty of the Land” is shaped by artists who endeavor to use nature and the landscape as a tool for analyzing their inner selves, as well as their place in the world.