Opening Reception – Saturday, June 26, 4-7PM: RSVP for a 1-hour time slot HERE. Due to our limited capacity, timed entry reservations are required to attend the opening reception. Please sign up for only one time slot, and your arrival to the gallery must be within the hour you have selected. Please read our COVID Courtesy Code prior to your visit – face coverings are required for all visitors, even if you are vaccinated.
After opening day, the gallery will be open regular hours, Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6PM, and reservations will not be required.
Geomorphic Agents includes five painted and sculptural installations by interdisciplinary artist Reade Bryan, focused on regions that have been dramatically altered by man-made irrigation systems. In this new body of work, the artist combines layered batik paintings on silk organza juxtaposing root systems of desert flora, various linear irrigation maps, and contemporary architecture, mounted in metal frames, with the addition of one plywood sculpture that formally references entangled canal structures.
The exhibition’s site of departure is the Aral Sea, which was an endorheic lake located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in central Asia. This once rich ecosystem began to recede in the 1960’s after the former Soviet Union diverted river flow in order to irrigate the desert for the production of monoculture crops, primarily cotton, which the government referred to as “white gold.” The centerpiece of the exhibition, Thirty Years, comprises temporally distinct views of the Aral Sea from 1977 and 2006, revealing the scale of dessication within this relatively short geologic time frame. Other works visit the Hohokam Canal System, a complex irrigation system abandoned in the fifteenth century spanning the Salt River and Gila River Basin in modern-day Arizona and Mexico, as well as Lake Mead, serving Las Vegas and its expanding suburbs which has reached a historically low level due to unpredictable annual flow, drought, and climate intensity.
The exhibition’s title references research from the late geomorphologist Roger LeBaron Hooke, who referred to humans as the earth’s premier geomorphic agents, surpassing naturally occurring forces due to the dramatic and exponential alterations imposed by man-made tools onto the earth’s surface in recent millenia. Bryan’s exploration pushes Hooke’s analysis further to foreground irrigation systems in addition to deforestation and crop production, looking at how the control of water has contributed to domination through capital extraction. Through the painted lines of these diminished waterways, Geomorphic Agents traces the nationalistic hubris feeding the desire for power on a global scale.
BIO:
Originally from Houston, TX, Bryan earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 2006. He has been the recipient of the AIM program (2013), which culminated with the exhibition Bronx Calling organized by the Bronx Museum. His solo shows include REFLEX (2013) at Signal Gallery and Inhabited (2014) at Wave Hill.
Image above: Reade Bryan, Thirty Years (detail), 2021. Batik on silk fabric, aluminum framing, 48 x 156 x 156 inches.
_____________________________
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Member Stephen Levin, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, many individuals and Smack Mellon’s Members.
Smack Mellon’s programs are also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and with generous support from The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust, Jerome Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., and Exploring The Arts. In-kind donations are provided by Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation/NYC Department of Education.
Smack Mellon would like to extend a special thanks to all of the individuals, foundations, and businesses who have contributed to the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund.
Space for Smack Mellon’s programs is generously provided by the Walentas family and Two Trees Management.
