Landed: Selections from the Permanent Collection

Explorations of the land are material artists frequently return to, whether they are referencing the experience of being rooted in a place, the excitement of wanderlust, the confusion of displacement, or the stability that may (or may not) come with settling down. When one has landed in a place this often implies a new beginning, a clean slate, and starting over. Particularly prescient in these times, it also references the journey to reach the ending point, and the pitfalls along the way. This exhibition explores the idea of “having landed” in relation to stability and mobility, stasis and upheaval, putting down roots, and the discovery of the new.

Each section explores means of transport, attachment to the land, the need to travel to find oneself, and the continual search for the new — all in the context of the American landscape tradition. We are often not fully cognizant of the landscape that surrounds us—the vernacular landscape that is familiar and local—until we are uprooted and forced to confront what we are leaving and where we are going, or until someone else recognizes its value. Works in this exhibition remind us that there is limitless fascination involved in the exploration of place.

All works in this exhibition are from the Permanent Collection of the Danforth Art Museum.