Stone Barns Center Opens a Gallery with Object & Thing
A debut exhibition on artistic practices interwoven with farm sustainability
A confluence of categoric visionaries, The Gallery at the non-profit farm and education axis Stone Barns Center (home of the two-Michelin-star farmstead restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns) debuted this week in partnership with art and design platform Object & Thing. The exhibition adheres to the mission of the Pocantico Hills, New York-located Center and addresses farm sustainability through the lens of artistic practice and materiality.
Seven artists comprise the exhibit, curated by Object & Thing’s founder and creative director, Abby Bangser. Less than a year ago, we found ourselves venturing to Bangser’s collaborative At the Noyes House: Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing exhibition in New Canaan, Connecticut. There, Bangser and her collaborators transformed a mid-century masterpiece into a moment of pure artistic splendor. Its kismet blend of design serenity and environmental vigor also translate to her work with the Stone Barns Center.
Functional pieces from the artists Megumi Arai, Jane Crisp, Green River Project LLC, Gregg Moore, Kiva Motnyk, Johnny Ortiz (the current Chef in Residence at Stone Barns) and Frances Palmer populate The Gallery at Stone Barns. Each work employs material from the Stone Barns farm (in fact, all the artists were offered the opportunity to visit with the center’s Arts & Ecology team to select materials for their pieces), ranging from Crisp’s use of steam-bent wood to Motnyk’s dried flowers for plant-based dyes. As with previous Object & Thing explorations, the line between art and design has been removed.
This exhibition runs on location now through 9 May, but the items within can be viewed and acquired online through The Gallery website. Following this exhibit, Bangser and collaborators will open At The Luss House: Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing, which runs 7 May through 24 July. As with last year’s architecturally enchanting, site-specific event, it will be one not to miss.
Images courtesy of Elena Wolfe
