The Fields Sculpture Park

The Fields
Sculpture Park

Overview

Current Exhibitions

Location and Hours

Application Guidelines

Artists Exhibited

Past Exhibitions

Map of the Park

Overview

Summer 2008 Exhibitions

The Fields Sculpture Park located at Omi International Arts Center, encompasses approximately 400 acres of farmland of which 100 acres are dotted with internationally recognized contemporary sculpture. It offers established as well as emerging American and international artists unique possibilities to create and exhibit a broad range of large-scale work. The Fields' mission is to expand the experience of what contemporary art viewed in a natural environment can be.

The Fields was founded in 1998 as public grounds for viewing contemporary sculpture with over 80 works of art on view. Several new pieces are added every year and temporary curated exhibitions are opened to the public each June. There are six distinct areas for viewing sculpture comprised of rolling fields, wooded knolls, and wetlands. A path for viewing the sculptures follows the edge of a natural pond surrounded by trees, providing a shaded backdrop to view the pieces.

The Charles B. Benenson Visitor Center & Gallery is the latest addition to The Fields Sculpture Park and Omi International Art Center. The Visitors Center welcomes local residents and increasing numbers of visitors to Omi, and is a central location for information about the outdoor installations at The Fields. It will hold exhibitions, concerts, lectures, readings, dance recitals, and other events generated by Omi residency programs including a gift shop and café. Designed by F:T Architecture + Interiors, The Charles B. Benenson Visitor Center & Gallery is an environmentally progressive, 4200 square foot LEED certified structure showcasing state of the art "green" systems.

The Fields Sculpture Park is open year round to the public during daylight hours. Plan at least one hour to visit all of the sculptures. A golf cart is available for handicapped use and bicycles are also provided. Visitors are encouraged to enjoy picnic facilities located throughout the park. Guided tours are available to groups of six or more. The Fields offers educational workshops and tours for school groups and other organizations.

In addition to The Fields Sculpture Park, The Art Omi International Arts Center offers residencies for writers, artists, dancers, musicians and Camp Omi, a summer program for children.

Current Exhibitions

Into The Trees
Curated by Lilly Wei & Amy Lipton
Polly Apfelbaum, Sanford Biggers, caraballo - farman, Stephen Dean, Elizabeth Demaray, Katie Holten, Jason Middlebrook, Alan Michelson, Cordy Ryman, Shinique Smith, Chrysanne Stathacos, Saya Woolfalk

Nina Katchadourian, Twitchers and Cheaters
Oliver Kruse, Clench 2008
Jean Shin and Brian Ripel, Stepping Stones (Pots and Pans), 2007
Curated by Kathleen Triem & Peter Franck

New Sculpture
Willard Boepple, Tarik Currimbhoy, Lauren Ewing, Steven Rolf Kroeger, Ken Landauer, Forrest Myers, Michael Rees, Michael Somoroff, Roy Staab, Mia Westerlund Roosen

Into The Trees
The Fields Sculpture Park at Omi International Arts Center, Ghent, NY

June 21 - November 30th, 2008

Curated by Lilly Wei and Amy Lipton

The Fields Sculpture Park is pleased to present its 10th annual summer exhibition, Into the Trees. The exhibiting artists are Polly Apfelbaum, Sanford Biggers, caraballo-farman, Elizabeth Demaray, Stephen Dean, Katie Holten, Jason Middlebrook, Alan Michelson, Cordy Ryman, Shinique Smith, Chrysanne Stathacos and Saya Woolfalk.

The exhibition title is borrowed from Ernest Hemingway's novel, Across the River and into the Trees and functions descriptively. A site-specific, open-ended project, it is as much-if not more-focused on the idea of a fixed point and the proliferation from that point as a metaphor for the creative process as it is on environmental issues. Into the Trees is interested in how each participating artist, given a tree as a common element and initial stimulus, will arrive at an innovative, utterly individual resolution.

For Into the Trees, nine artists have been invited to select a living tree from the 100-acre site of The Fields Sculpture Park at Omi International Art Center in Ghent, New York. The artists will work with their tree on a site-specific installation and must therefore take into consideration the temporality of their construction and materials as well as the natural surroundings and are asked not to harm the tree, the only restriction.

The exhibiting artists outdoors are: Polly Apfelbaum, Elizabeth Demaray, Stephen Dean, Jason Middlebrook, Alan Michelson, Cordy Ryman, Shinique Smith, Chrysanne Stathacos and Saya Woolfalk.

Into the Trees will continue indoors as the debut exhibition in the newly completed 1500 sq. ft gallery space in the Charles Benenson Visitor Center. Three artists will make use of the gallery space as a continuation of the outdoor exhibition. Katie Holten, from Ireland, will recreate her sculpture, Excavated Tree: Missouri Native (Flowering Dogwood), a monumental tree sculpture produced and exhibited at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in 2007. Holten represented Ireland in the 2005 Venice Biennale. Working in video, installation and photography, the artist team of Argentinian-born Abou Caraballo and Iranian-born Leonor Farman have been collaborating since 2001 and have recently exhibited at the Tate Modern in London. For Into the Trees, they will create a new work consisting of a live video feed transmitted from the roots of a sapling planted outdoors to a monitor in the gallery, a "performance of growth" that can be watched in real time. Sanford Biggers, will exhibit Cheshire (2007), a video sequence where, in turn, a different black male dressed in his work uniform climbs--or tries to climb--a tree: a fencer in white knickers; a dentist in scrubs; a lawyer in a suit. Tree-climbing as a stand-in for social climbing, its darker reference is to strange fruit, depicting, according to the artist, "black men hanging out in trees, as opposed to being hung from them."

New Sculpture at The Fields Sculpture Park
at Omi International Arts Center, Ghent, NY

June 21 - November 30th, 2008

The Fields Sculpture Park is pleased to present several new outdoor works of art that have been installed on the grounds for the 2008 season. The artists are Willard Boepple, Tarik Currimbhoy, Ken Landauer, Antoni Milkowski, Forrest Myers, Michael Rees, Mia Westerlund Roosen, Michael Somoroff and Roy Staab.

Willard Boepple has loaned a work from 2000, titled Room to The Fields, This aluminum nine-foot square cube at first looks like the frame for an unfinished shed, but once you enter and engage with it, you begin to understand it as sculpture. Boepple has exhibited widely since the mid-seventies. Utilitarian objects such as ladders, shelves and mechanisms primarily influence his sculptures with levers and cogs. His craftsman-ship displays a modernist sense of connection with the long history of sculpture.

Ellipse, a new work by Tarik Currimbhoy is a hand carved white marble shell, elliptical in plan, held together by an open elliptical collar that locks the structure into place, so holding it up by its own weight. Made of an Indian white marble known locally as "baswada white" the exterior of the ellipse is honed, and the interior, hand chiseled. The intent was to create a hand made form, human in scale, natural in material - a freestanding structure that can be experienced from within and without.

Ken Landauer's 2007 sculpture titled King, consists of a king-sized mattress sealed within a Plexiglas container. The luxury linens on the bed were donated by Pratesi. This piece explores issues of desire, home, the ideal and the unattainable. Interior lighting creates a warm glow that can be seen at night. This work would make a perfect setting for Snow White.

Antoni Milkowski (1935 - 2001) was an American minimalist sculptor who studied with and was highly influenced by Tony Smith. His 1978 steel work Ripogemus has been loaned to The Fields by his estate. The piece consists of three modular units, which create a threedimensional negative space. The massive scale of this work is offset by its expansive and open surroundings. Additionally, the contrast between the man-made material and the lushness of the landscape surrounding it create the type of contrast that Milkowski sought in his work.

Forrest Myers is an artist who has greatly expanded the functional vocabulary of sculpture. His magnificent 1969 minimalist, aluminum sculpture, Valledor has been donated to the Fields by the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT. For 40 years, Myers has been experimenting with the inherent properties of metal. His most popularly known work is "The Wall" (1973), a vibrant relief commissioned to disguise steel joists jutting from the brick wall of a building at the intersection of Broadway and Houston in New York City.

Michael Rees is a digital designer, sculptor, and aesthetic engineer. His 2008 work at The Fields, Converge: Ghraig Bag, was created using advanced digital technology. Rees is currently developing a comprehensive system of hardware, software, and sculpture collaboratively with software programmers, artists, engineers, application engineers, and designers. He has exhibited his work widely in Europe and the United States both in private and public venues and was included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial. He holds an MFA degree from Yale University and won a 1983 (DAAD) grant to study in Dusseldorf, West Germany at the Kunstakademie with Joseph Beuys.

Mia Westerlund Roosen's 2006 work at The Fields is titled Bolero. This and her other recent large-scale sculptural works emerge as a departure from her past massive concrete and lead sculptures. Westerlund Roosen's sculptures both capture and defy the nature of their materials. Made from resin, felt and cast concrete, her works capture moments in time. Mia Westerlund Roosen has been exhibiting since the early 1970's and her work can be found in numerous public collections. She has received several prestigious awards, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

Michael Somoroff's 2005 large-scale work Illumination 1, travels to The Fields from The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, Ct and the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX. Previous to making sculpture, Somoroff has had an extensive career as a photographer and filmmaker. His more recent work has been spent researching his ideas and his artistic production. His project of social reform through the promotion of art is the corner stone of his activities. His work is represented in many important collections, include the Museum of Modern Art; New York, The Houston Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas; and The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. Somoroff is the creator of the Matrix Art Collective, a full service art production facility in the New York City metropolitan area.

Internationally known artist Roy Staab has been creating ephemeral installations along the shallow waters and shores of lakes, oceans and rivers around the world since 1979. Staab uses materials found on site, creating Zen-like sculptures, which may last an hour, a couple of weeks or months, depending on the forces of nature. For The Fields, Staab has created two new works in the pond during his two week stay, Omi Triangle made of fallen logs and Green Galleon, created with saplings and reeds found in the woods. His creations are simple geometries, their fleeting reflections when placed over water and the delicate nature of the materials themselves, the relentless tug of gravity, which inevitably destroys them, serve as reminders of the transitory nature of life. Recent installations took place at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison WI; International House of Japan, Tokyo, Japan; Sacatar, Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil; Geumgang Nature Art Biennale 2006 Gongju, South Korea and Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan.

Images (left banner) of artworks top to bottom are:

Isaac Witkin, In The Beginning, 1968

Mia Westerlund Roosen, Bolero, 2006

Dewitt Godfrey, Socrates Sculpture, 2000

Lauren Ewing, The Shape of Touch, 2008

Michael Somoroff, Illumination 1, 2005

Charles Ginnever, Apollo, 1985

Tarik Currimbhoy, Ellipse, 2007

Shinique Smith, Covariants, 2008

Michael Rees, Converge: Ghraib Bag, 2008

Forrest Meyers, Valledor, 1969

Oliver Kruse, Clench, 2008

Willard Boepple, Room, 2000

Roy Staab, Green Galleon, 2008

Mary Mattingly, Mach 2, 2007

Location and Hours

Visitors Center Hours:

Thursday 10-5
Friday 10 - 6
Saturday 10 - 6
Sunday 10 - 5
Monday 10-5

Sculpture Park hours:

Sunrise to sunset every day

Length of Visit: Plan at least one hour to visit over 70 sculptures in all 6 areas of the park.

Picnic Area and Bicycles: You may choose to view the park on one of our bicycles or on foot. Picnic tables and seating areas are located throughout the park for your enjoyment.

Tours and Public Programs: Free guided tours are available with reservation for groups of six or more. In addition, summer concerts, public readings, exhibitions and other special events are held throughout the year.

The entire park can be seen within an hour if walking at a moderate to slow pace. The path system here is circular so one can go in either direction. There are many sculptures that are tucked away in the woods.

For information about handicapped accessibility in our Sculpture Park or for our events, please call 518 392 4747 or email us at thefields@artomi.org.

The Fields Sculpture Park
at Omi International Arts Center
1405 County Rt.22
Ghent, New York 12075

from New York City by car

Take the Henry Hudson Parkway until it becomes the Saw Mill River Parkway and continue on the Saw Mill to the Taconic State Parkway North. Take the Taconic State Parkway North 1-1/2 hours to Hudson/Ancram Rt. 82 Exit. This exit is just north of signs for "Lake Taghkanic State Park". Pay close attention as Route 82 crosses the Taconic Parkway further south as well, but this earlier exit should not be taken. At the end of the ramp, take a right onto Route 82 North. Take 82 North to Route 9H. Take a right onto Route 9H. Go north on Route 9H for 10 miles to County Route 22, which is the second right after "Love Apple Farm". Rt. 22 is 3.5 miles north of the juncture of 9H and Rt. 66. Go 2 miles on Route 22 to 1405 County Route 22.

from Boston by car:

I-90 W/Massachusetts Turnpike/Mass Pike
Take exit B3 for RT-22 toward New Lebanon/Austerlitz
Turn left at RT-22
Turn right at RT-203
Turn left at CR-9
Turn left at CR-9/RT-66
Turn right at Garage Pl Rd
Continue straight onto CR-21
Slight left at CR-22
Visitors Center is on your right.
1405 County Route 22

from NH and PA:

Take NYS Thruway to Hudson, Rt. 23B, then left onto 9H. Follow above instructions from Route 9H to ART/OMI.

by train from NYC (2 hours):

Take the Amtrak train from Penn Station, in Manhattan at 7th Ave. and 32nd Street, to Hudson, New York. For train schedules and reservations, phone: 1-800-872-7245.

from Hudson:

Take Route 66 North. Turn left onto 9H. Turn right onto County Route 22. Go to 1405 County Route 22 on left.

from Chatham:

Follow Route 66 South. In Ghent, turn right onto Garage Place. Turn left onto County Route 22. go to 1405 County Route 22.

from Albany:

Take I-90 East toward Boston. Take the Hudson Exit/US-9 Exit 12 toward Hudson. Take a right onto US-9. Stay straight through the traffic circle and continue onto NY 9H. Turn left onto County Route 22. Go to 1405 County Route 22 and turn left into Omi International Arts Center.

Past Exhibitions:

The Fields Sculpture Park

Click for information on:

"Nature/ Not Nature" 2007
an Exhibition curated by Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem,
Participating artists: Jae Hi Ahn, Jane Benson, Elizabeth Demaray, Dan Devine, Alex Fischer, Baris Karayazgan, John Powers, Lisa Solomon and Peter Stempel

Nature Not Nature explored ways in which artists represent or make use of nature in the construction of outdoor art. The gamut of installations created a dialogue revolving around the representation of nature using natural and artificial materials. Nature Not Nature was a curatorial experiment which goes to root issues of making art constructions in an outdoor context. Questions relating to form and material are provocative in the landscape of the sculpture park.

"Bivouac" 2007, an Exhibition curated by Max Goldfarb

Participating artists: Michael Cataldi, Ross Cisneros, Charles Goldman, Max Goldfarb, Kahn/Selesnick, Jose Krapp, Marie Lorenz, Matthew Lusk, Mary Mattingly, John Osorio-Buck, Garrett Ricciardi, Elinor Whidden and Allison Wiese

Bivouac included a small outpost of skilled improvisational designers; expeditionary artists whose works approximate dwellings. Their sheltering forms are the trace of a civilization of dignified survivalists, poetical pragmatists and networked autonomists. The works demonstrate a progressive compulsion to construct from the bones of a failed utopia. Neither primitive hut, nor decorated shed, these artworks served as prototypical responses to aggravated social conditions.

Out of Context: Photography in the Landscape 2006
Curated by Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Participating artists: Meredith Allen, Katharina Bosse, David Franck, Andrew Garn, Ellen Kooi, Michael Krondl, Sebastian Lemm, Valerie Merians, Portia Munson, Donna Nield, Type A, Ruud van Empel and Takashi Yasumura

Out of Context was about the ability of images to create their own context or space, both ignoring and engaging the landscape surrounding it. Thirteen international contemporary photographers each created 10'x16' vinyl images which were suspended in locations throughout the park.

Summer Selections 2005
Todt- "Tot Guards" Exhibit 2005
Goldberg Collection Exhibit 2005
Curated by Kathleen Triem + Peter Franck

Summer Selections 2005 included a retrospective of the important painter and sculptor Stanley Boxer, installations by Steven Brower, Dewitt Godfrey, Mark Goulthorpe/dECOi/MIT, Hyungsub Shin, Bernar Venet, Bill Wilson and Nina Levy. In addition, a series of images mounted on huge billboards by the artist collective TODT. The Fields presented two pieces by the important Polish artist, Magdalena Abakanowitz. Several important pieces were on generous loan from The Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection.

One Person Exhibitions
Curated by Kathleen Triem and Peter Franck:

Bernar Venet 2002

Charles Ginnever 2003

Tom Gottsleben: Living Stone 2005

Series: Ignoring Boundaries

Part 4: Public Notice: Painting In the Landscape 2004

Co-curated by Sabine Russ, Gregory Volk, Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Participating artists: Thordis Adalsteinsdottir, Mike Ballou, Ati Maier and Tilo Schulz, Joyce Pensato, Greg Stone and Carrie Waldman

Public Notice: Painting in the Sculpture Park featured six billboard-sized original paintings installed in The Fields. This unusual exhibition of outdoor paintings radically extended what a sculpture park is and can be, including its most basic role as a place to display sculptures. Instead of durable sculptures made from metal, stone, or other materials, one will find actual paintings specially prepared to function as outdoor works.

Part 3: Into the Gloaming: Light in the Landscape, 2003
Co-curated by Koan Jeff Baysa, Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Participating artists: Cathey Billian, Emma Dewing, Habib Kheradyar, Simon Lee, Perry Mamaril, Lisa Mordhorst, Warren Neidich & Paula Hayes, Michael Petry, Erwin Redl, Nobi Shioya, Leo Villareal

Gloaming is the Scottish word for twilight, that sacred in-between time of transition between the activity of our daily routine to the quiet of night and rest. This transitional period is an ideal time to experience works that deal with light in the landscape, from subtle works that glow from beyond the crest of a hill, incongruous neon works in the countryside, or small works approached from afar as mere glints. Perhaps, in effect more definitive than most other landscape art, this show, which ran for one year's duration took advantage of the inherent atmospheric changes due to seasonal attributes. The show looked vastly different with a white background and crisp clear winter days than during the foggy evenings of the fall. The glowing sculptures had a surreal quality in the still, darkened landscape, yet during the summer months, with lightning bugs which glow as frenetic beacons at night, the pieces seemed strangely at home.

Part 2: Sound in the Landscape, 2002
Co-curated by Jeffery Lependorf with Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Participating artists: Bill and Mary Buchen, Jeffery Lependorf, Matthew McCaslin, Joshua Selman Jeffery Talman, Paulo Vivaqua

Sound in the Landscape investigated the way in which sound can make boundaries in space, and in so doing, become sculptural. Sound cannot ever become an object; it is entirely fluid and spatially indeterminate. But certainly sound can create a very strong sense of presence, place or reference, since it is, in some respects, the aural equivalent of an image or representation. Sound is eminently capable of moving us to experience an array of emotions, specific locations, events, moods and abstractions in an analogous fashion to the plastic arts, yet unlike sculpture, we never see a sound.

Part 1: Image in the Landscape, 2001
Curated by Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Image in the Landscape was conceived as a way of subverting the idea of "representation" in sculpture. The concept of "image," or figuration, implies heroic monumentality and the commemoration of historic events and personalities, or at the very least, the safe soothing and bourgeois surroundings of a formal garden. Despite these connotations of power and conservatism (both artistic and political) this genre sometimes provokes a deep connection between memory and place.

Modules 2001
Curated by Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Participating artists: Mikyung Kim, Stefanie Nagorka, Donna Nield, John Powers and Gary Quinonez

Modules was a reexamination of a particular strategy for making sculpture. Instead of focusing on the solidity and indivisibility of an isolated object, the pieces presented in this show used the device of reproduction and combination of elements in a multitude of strategies.

Andre Emmerich Collection Exhibit 2000
Curated by Kathleen Triem and Peter Franck

Aedicules 1999
Curated by Peter Franck and Kathleen Triem

Participating artists: Sylvia Benitez, Jackie Brookner, Jared Handelsman, Gillian Jagger, Thomas Leeser, Ann Messner, Mikyung Kim, Ken Smith, Robert Werthamer and Jerilea Zempel

Aedicules refers to a small architectural element, sometimes a protective structure or domicile. In the facades of Gothic cathedrals, aedicules are the archways and niches, which contain sculptures and reliefs. Generally, aedicules mark and create space and define locations. For this show, artists, architects and landscape architects were asked to use materials of the landscape to create an aedicule.

Application Guidelines:

The Fields Sculpture Park

Please include the following materials only.

Ten (10) color images on CD, or DVD for new media artists. Each image should be labeled with your name, title, date, media, and dimensions. Videos should be cued for a 3-5 minute viewing. All materials will be viewed on a Mac computer.

An annotated printed list of materials (or CD/video script) submitted with title, date of work, medium and dimensions. At the top of the page list the artist's name, address, telephone number, email address.

A brief - no more than one page Artist's Statement and references if available.

Curriculum vitae listing education and exhibitions and website address if available.

A S.A.S.E. (self addressed stamped envelope), for returning your materials if you want them back.

Send completed applications to:

Sculpture Park at Omi International Arts Center
The Fields, Applications
1405 County Route 22
Ghent, New York 12075

or e-mail us at:

thefields@artomi.org

Board of Directors

Amy Lipton, Director
Kathleen Triem, Peter Franck, Curators
Jed Cleary, Director of Collections
Dale Stewart, Director, Visitors Services

Board Members
for The Fields Sculpture Park

Koan Jeff Baysa
John Cross
Susan Enzer
Jene Highstein
Nancy Kohler
Barbara Lax
Dominique Nahas
Anders Schroder
Sandi Slone
Bernar Venet
Lilly Wei
Rachel Weingeist
Allan Wexler

List of Artists Exhibited

Works past and present that have been on exhibition since 1997:

Magdalena Abakanowicz, MM Anderson, Carl Andre, Barbara Andrus, William Anastasi, Lillian Ball, Ulrich Bauss, Willard Boepple, Philip Boehn, Stanley Boxer, Dove Bradshaw, Steven Brower, Fritz Buehner, Joyce Burstein, Alexander Calder, Mary Ellen Carroll, Jed Cleary, Tony Cragg, James Croak, John Cross, Lewis deSoto, Dan Devine, Peter Dudek, Mikala Dwyer, Nancy Dwyer, Janet Echelman, Olafur Eliasson, Margaret Evangeline, Miloslav Fekar, Jackie Ferrara, Linda Fleming, Kathleen Gilrain, DeWitt Godfrey, Ronald Gonzalez, Harry Gordon, Philip Grausman, Robert Grovesnor, Tadashi Hashimoto, Peter Hide, Jene Highstein, J Shih Chieh Huang, John Isherwood, Jae-Choul Jeoung, Ann Jon, Habib Kheradyar, Alain Kirili, Grace Knowlton, Nina Levy, Alexander Liberman, Donald Lipski, Robert Lobe, Thomas Matsuda, Vincent Mazeau, Antoni Milkowski, Forrest Myers, Stephanie Nagorka, Aurora Noreña, Erin O'Keefe, Okshteyn Shimon, Dennis Oppenheim, Alena Ort, Don Osborn, Victoria Palermo, Beverly Pepper, Robert Perless, Nova Mihai Popa, John Powers, Joanna Przybyla, Gary Quinonez, Steven Rand, Dina Recanati, Erwin Redi, Tony Rosenthal, John Ruppert, Nob S, Tim Scott, Josh Selman, Foon Sham, Jennie Shanker, Hyungsub Shin, Steven Siegel, Lisa Solomon, Peter Stempel, William Tucker, Mary Ann Unger, Xavier Veilhan, Ole Videbæk, Bill Wilson and Isaac Witkin.

Isaac Witkin, In The Beginning, 1968

The Charles B. Benenson Visitors Center & Gallery at Omi International Arts Center