EXHIBITIONS

Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church’s Olana and the Thomas Cole Site is a joint exhibition of works by acclaimed French conceptual artist Laurent Grasso (b. 1972, France) taking place at Olana, the home and designed landscape of Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, the historic home and studios of Thomas Cole (1801-1848).

The joint exhibition accompanies Grasso’s largest ever solo exhibition to date in the United States at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, Metaphysical Maze.

At Olana, Grasso’s installation will be centered on an immersive presentation of the artist’s 2022 film Orchid Island within the context of the Dining Room / Picture Gallery of Olana’s Main House. Elsewhere, new paintings from Grasso’s ongoing series Studies into the Past will be hung alongside artworks by Frederic Church, “infiltrating” the visitor’s sense of the historical past.

Grasso’s Studies into the Past series has drawn direct inspiration from 19th-century American artists of the Hudson River School, particularly Frederic Church. Church’s fascination with Prussian explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, whose seminal work Cosmos articulated the interconnectedness of science, the natural world, and spiritual concerns, is echoed in Grasso’s contemporary conceptual works exploring the links between the sciences and artistic exploration.

For more information about Metaphysical Maze at the Thomas Cole Site, visit https://thomascole.org/metaphysicalmaze/

About the Artist:

Born in France in 1972, Laurent Grasso has developed a fascination with the visual possibilities related to the science of electromagnetic energy, radio waves, and naturally occurring phenomena. Grasso is the recipient of the Meru Art*Science Award in Bergamo, Italy; the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres; and the Marcel Duchamp Prize. He is the subject of a major monograph, Time Travel, published by Rizzoli in 2024. Grasso’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at international institutions including the Abbaye of Jumièges, in France, Tao Art in Taiwan, the Collège des Bernardins and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum in Shanghai, the Jeonnam Museum of Art in Gwangyang, South Korea, the Palais Fesch, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ajaccio, France, the Hermès Foundation in Tokyo, the Kunsthaus Baselland in Switzerland, the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montréal, the Jeu de Paume and Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. amongst others. Grasso has been included in many international biennials including the 21st Sydney Biennale, Australia (2018); EVA International, Limerick, Ireland (2018); Kochi, India (2014); Gwangju 9th, South Korea (2012); Manifesta 8, Cartagena/ Murcia, Spain (2010); Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2009); Moscow, Russia (2009); and Busan, South Korea (2004 and 2006). Laurent Grasso has recently created several permanent installations in public spaces including Solar Wind on the Paris ring road, and a group of sculptures entitled Roots of the Future, which was installed for the 2024 Paris Olympic Village. Grasso was also commissioned to create a permanent site-specific installation for the ceiling of the new train station in Châtillon-Montrouge, as part of the Grand Paris project. Laurent Grasso is represented by Perrotin and Sean Kelly.

Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church’s Olana and the Thomas Cole Site is organized at Olana State Historic Site by The Olana Partnership in cooperation with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, and in collaboration with the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and MASS MoCA.

The Metaphysical Maze project is curated by Denise Markonish.

This project is supported by donors to The Olana Partnership’s Frederic Church 200 Fund, with special appreciation to members of the Frederic Church 200 Committee.

Programming and exhibitions organized by The Olana Partnership are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This project is supported through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism.

The Olana Partnership is the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit cooperative partner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation at Olana State Historic Site.