AgriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land is a multi-venue project that features conceptual and reverential artworks connected to farmers and farming.
agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land
June 8–October 1, 2023
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
June 10, 2023–January 7, 2024
Longmont Museum, Longmont, CO
AgriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land is a multi-venue collaboration between artists and farmers in Boulder County, Colorado. It hammers home the point that the two seemingly divergent lines of work can engage in productive dialogue. The collaboration includes exhibitions at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and the Longmont Museum, each of which offers exemplary artworks, although BMoCA leans more heavily toward conceptual pieces.
Two installations at BMoCA are particularly memorable, as they literally incorporate the vestiges of farming—dirt and crops—into their materials. Patricia Rangel collaborated with a Boulder County farm to turn a tower of compacted dirt into a totem honoring the regenerative and cyclical nature of agriculture. The collective Desert ArtLAB and Lebanese American farmer André Houssney use altered maps and a mini wheat field on a raised bed to comment on the displacement of farmers of color. Also notable is Adán de la Garza’s hour-long looping video in which the artist meshes farm images generated by artificial intelligence to evoke questions about the future of farming.
Meanwhile, the Longmont Museum continues the dialogue by showcasing six highly relatable and even whimsical works. Nicole Banowetz fills a room with a comically inflated, bouncy, white-and-gold creature conjuring ideas of microbes within soil. A bit more serious is Patrick Marold’s latticed wall of repurposed cornstalks, illustrating the vast scale of corn feed that keeps cows producing dairy items.
In addition, works by two nationally known artists grab attention. Sarah Sense’s three prints utilize Boulder County maps and archival photos in her characteristic style of shredding then weaving documents into new images. Margarita Cabrera collaborated with community members to create two giant, farm-reminiscent “wheels” of decorated and carved ceramic bricks held in place by wood spindles, or spokes.
Together with other works in both museums, they offer messages about the cooperative nature, pastoral vitality, and cultural touchstones of agriculture, as well as its essentiality in human society.
