At , 4:00pm onJuly 24th, 2022, 410A Colonels Row, Governors Island, artists Tessa Grundon and Gene Kiegel will speak about the overlaps and geological connections in their joint show, ‘Emergent Strata‘, which closes on July 31. All are invited and welcome! Bring a picnic blanket or sit on the grass.
Picture a cross-section of earth, layered with the unconformities and fractures of geologic time. In Emergent Strata, Tessa Grundon and Gene Kiegel uncover these layers, their vestiges and sediments, in landscapes: along the contour lines of a riverbank, through the intricate architecture of bees and their waxy walls, and in the negative space of industrial ruins. Colors pour forth from geological folds, seams, and formations; this work allows us to see these compressed worlds, cross-cutting and overlapping the relative time of humans and nonhumans in the earth-record.
Tessa Grundon is a British artist working on both sides of the Atlantic. Her work is rooted in “place” using elements of the landscape to explore environmental issues. For the last few years she has been based on Governors Island in NYC Harbor working with arts and science organizations including SWALE, Urban Soil Institute, NYU Gallatin’s Wetlab, Works on Water and Underwater New York focusing on engagement with the environment and education. Most recently, she has started working with Artist Space as a teaching artist on the Lower East Side. Other partnerships and residencies include Brooklyn Navy Yard, Art.Earth, I-Park, Wave Hill, PLACE Collective and Sail Britain. She states: “My work is rooted in “place” using materials from the natural and fabricated world reflecting the Anthropocene in which we live. Using elements of the landscape, my work is inspired and influenced by the topography and history of a place and its ever-changing environment. This ranges from the rising and increasingly polluted tides to the effect of humankind on community, climate and landscape, to man himself and the shared visual language of natural forms.“
Gene Kiegel is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in New York. His work challenges our understanding of the universe, exposing an omnipresent universal language through a wide range of innovative and unconventional materials and artistic processes. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Kiegel immigrated in 1989 as a Jewish refugee to the United States. The shock of loss and relocation impelled Kiegel to channel his emotions into art—what began as an instinctive coping mechanism has evolved into a lifelong practice. Kiegel holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design & Architecture from the University of California Berkeley (1998). In 2000, Kiegel moved to Los Angeles and began his artistic journey with photography. Analogue photography inspired new art projects, prompting Kiegel to move to New York. Kiegel has exhibited internationally (New York, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Paris, St. Petersburg) with artwork in the collections of Elli Tahari, Tiffany Masterson, Moishe Mana, Moshe Mamrud, Miguel Mendoza, and others.
