In the picturesque town of Hudson, NY, on the banks of the Hudson River, the new exhibition Anthropocene - Invisible Changes is currently underway at the Front Room Gallery, which presents a group of Czech and American artists dealing with the topic of Geochronology and how humanity globally affects the earth's ecosystem.
The area around the Hudson River is historically the birthplace of the Hunsdon River Painters, a school of landscape painters who in the 19th century depicted nature and the area around the Hudson River. Already at that time, they romanticized the landscape and painted it in a wild, virgin form as a reaction to the ongoing industrialization.
The group of eight Czech and American contemporary artists exhibiting in the Front Room Gallery loosely follows the theme of landscape and deals with the global human influence on shaping the environment. Each of the artists presents a different view of this issue: Black-and-white photos of Sasha Bezzubov (Ukraine/US) from the "Albedo Zone" series he took in Alaska address issues of global warming. Wall sculptures of Pamela Longobardi (US) loosely resembling floating vessels are created from plastic debris she found on the ocean beaches. Stephen Mallon (US) presents photographs from the series “Next Stop Atlantic” documenting the discarded New York subway cars into the Atlantic oceans, which are used to create new artificial reefs.
Lucie Svoboda Mičíková (CZ) shows a series of frottages in which architectural elements are transformed into landscape compositions. A series of black-and-white photographs of the Prachovské skály, rock formations in Czechia by Edita Pattová (CZ) is supplemented with comic-like drawings. Photo by Jan Pfeiffer (CZ), taken on the Canary Islands, documents a performance that deals with the relationship of man to architecture and the environment.
Petra Gupta Valentová (CZ/US), exhibiting curator, shows several works from her series of “Mental Maps”, hand-dyed and embroidered fabrics. Kathleen Vance (US) artist, curator, and gallerist presents her sculpture from the series "Traveling Landscapes", which consists of miniature landscapes placed inside vintage suitcases.
The exhibition was created as a cultural exchange in cooperation with the Gallery of Critics in Prague, following the exhibition of Czech-American artists Metaplay in 2015-16, which took place in the Gallery of Critics in Prague and the Czech Center New York. The exhibition Anthropocene - Invisible Changes is on view until February 19, 2023, at Front Room Gallery 727 Warren St, Hudson, NY.
