Stone Barns Center launches a new Gallery space at the nonprofit farm and education center, collaborating with art and design fair platform, Object & Thing, on a first exhibition that celebrates the linkages between artistic practices and farm sustainability

Stone Barns Center Gallery in Collaboration with Object & Thing. Photo by Elena Wolfe.

Pocantico Hills, NY, March 31, 2021 – Today, Stone Barns Center, along with art and design fair platform, Object & Thing, announced a collaborative exhibition at the newly launched Gallery space at the nonprofit Stone Barns Center. Object & Thing’s founder and creative director, Abby Bangser, curated the exhibition of seven artists, all of whom have made unique, yet functional works that embrace materials from the Stone Barns farm.

For nearly two decades, Stone Barns Center and its partner restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns have partnered to push the boundaries of sustainable farming and eating. The Arts & Ecology initiative at Stone Barns sets out to accelerate change in regional farm systems–which produce much more than food, including building material and fibers -- by collaborating with and supporting artisans whose work and materials highlight the inextricable links between craft and farm sustainability.

Object & Thing’s curation of the exhibition focused on artists it champions that share a deep awareness and reverence for the origin of the materials that inform their practices. The participating artists are: Megumi Arai, Jane Crisp, Green River Project LLC, Gregg Moore, Kiva Motnyk, Johnny Ortiz and Frances Palmer. Artists were offered the opportunity to visit with the Arts & Ecology team at Stone Barns Center and identify materials for their pieces:

Megumi Arai shares a personal interpretation of traditional noren informed by her Japanese heritage, in this case made with both salvaged fabrics and those she dyed using dried dahlias, marigold and sumac from Stone Barns as well as onion skins from the Blue Hill kitchen. Each noren will hang from hazel branches she harvested from the farm.
Jane Crisp’s garden trugs, made from steam-bent wood inspired by boat building techniques, are displayed with the farm’s spring floral offerings.
Green River Project LLC’s tabletop vessels are carved from black cherry wood from the farm.
Gregg Moore combines soil from the most clay-rich level of the farm’s stratigraphy and his own black porcelain recipe to make “soil plates”.
Kiva Motnyk’s linen napkins and table runners are dyed using plants from the farm, in addition to dried flowers used for steaming and hapazome (flower pounding).
Johnny Ortiz, who is also the current Chef in Residence at Stone Barns, fired fragments of New Mexican soil at the farm during the 2021 Worm Moon, then cured them with Barn's beef tallow to make his “field studies”.
Frances Palmer’s exploration of ceramic pitchers with traditional Chinese glazes at various heights and for a range of purposes, bring together her art and garden practices, as she works with floral material from Stone Barns for her display.

The overall display involves surfaces designed by Object & Thing’s artistic director, Rafael de Cárdenas, which were debuted at the inaugural edition of Object & Thing in Brooklyn. As part of the display at Stone Barns, in addition to Frances Palmer’s floral arrangements in her own pitchers, Philippe Gouze, Stone Barns Center’s co-director of Arts & Ecology, will also participate in creating floral installations that respond to the change of season throughout the exhibition.

All of the works in the exhibition will be available for sale between March 31 through May 9 at stonebarnscenter.org/gallery, with a percentage of proceeds benefiting Stone Barns Center. The exhibition can be visited through advance reservations offered by Stone Barns Center, and to all guests dining at Chef in Residence at Stone Barns or picking-up resourcED boxes from Blue Hill. The exhibition will be accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by independent curator and writer, Glenn Adamson. A related educational program involving talks and workshops with the participating artists will soon be announced. For more information on the exhibition and reservations to visit in person, please visit stonebarnscenter.org/gallery.

Artists
Megumi Arai
Jane Crisp
Green River Project LLC
Gregg Moore
Kiva Motnyk
Johnny Ortiz
Frances Palmer

About Stone Barns Center
Stone Barns Center is a nonprofit farm and education center with a mission to catalyze an ecological food culture. Since 2004, we have been driving innovation in ecological farming practices and mindful food choices that benefit human health, strengthen communities and protect the environment. Our Hudson Valley campus, shared with our partner restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns, is a place where farmers, chefs, diners, educators and artisans come together to push the boundaries of sustainable farming and eating.

About Object & Thing
Object & Thing reimagines the art and design fair concept, by bringing together both disciplines through a focus on the object. Launched in 2019 as an exhibition in New York City, as well as through a corresponding e-commerce site, Object & Thing presents object-based 20th and 21st century works, collaborating with artists’ studios and leading international art and design galleries. Founded and directed by Abby Bangser, former Artistic Director of Frieze Art Fairs for the Americas and Asia, it is organized in coordination with artistic director Rafael de Cárdenas.

For additional information, please contact:
Jessica Galen
Stone Barns Center
[email protected]
+1 781.799.9289

Morgan Potts
Camron PR
[email protected]
+1 646.420.0768