Jason Brown’s Work in Land Report Collective Exhibition
Land Report Collective Exhibition – Christel DeHaan Gallery at the University of Indianapolis
39.7684° N, 86.1581° W is open currently on display and will continue through February 17, 2023, when a reception will take place from 4 to 6 pm.
The artwork in this exhibition is particularly focused on the impact of human development and agricultural production on natural landscapes, environmental issues related to extraction of natural resources, and industrial manipulation of wild places. The elements of the exhibition title, 39.7684° N and 86.1581° W are the geographic coordinates of the gallery in Indianapolis. GPS data has also become emblematic of how digital tools and navigation are another way of experiencing landscape in contemporary culture.
Land Report Collective is a geographically disparate group of artists comprised of artists Leticia Bajuyo, Jason Sheridan Brown, Brian R. Jobe, David L. Jones, Patrick Kikut, and Shelby Shadwell, whose interdisciplinary artworks engage landscape as subject matter and also inspiration for conceptual ideas about land use and human relationships with the natural world.
UT’s Associate Professor of Sculpture, Jason Brown received his M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999, and has been teaching Sculpture at the University of Tennessee since 2001. Brown’s artwork has been exhibited nationally, including solo and group exhibits in Arizona, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Recent public art projects include large-scale outdoor sculpture installations at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota; North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina; Josephine Sculpture Park in Frankfort, Kentucky; and Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minnesota. Most recently he was invited for a solo exhibition of his sculpture at the Catron Gallery, R. Jack Fishman Library, at Walters State Community College. That exhibition titled “Foothills,” explores the impact that extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas have on the ecosystems and watersheds of Appalachian landscapes, and will be on display through March 30, 2023.
Brown’s artwork explores mountainous landscapes and rural cultures through a series of projects that question the controversial practice of mountaintop removal coal mining that is now prevalent throughout Southern Appalachia.
In addition to Brown, five other artists are participating in 39.7684° N, 86.1581° W.
Using artificial turf in this series of landscapes, Leticia Bajuyo’s critical vision questions societal norms of lawn care and our comfort, containment, and control of nature in the pursuit of a “well-manicured lawn.”
David Jones is fascinated with the ever-present energy economy in the American West where pump jacks, well pads, pipelines, open pit coal mines, and uranium mines proliferate the landscape as a glaring reminder of our absolute dependence on fossil fuels.
Shelby Shadwell’s charcoal and pastel drawings of space blankets, known as solar, emergency or thermal blankets, and which are often packed in first aid kits, have more recently become a symbol associated with the border crisis between the US and Mexico.
Patrick Kikut’s series of still life paintings feature food produced by Colorado River Basin agriculture and consumed throughout the nation and world.
Brian Jobe’s artwork is at the intersection of design and architecture where the delineation of pathways, borders and boundaries become interactions.