Acclaimed French artist’s work coming to Cole Site and Olana

CATSKILL/HUDSON―A joint exhibition of work by acclaimed French conceptual artist Laurent Grasso is set to open in the historic artist homes of Frederic Church and Thomas Cole.

Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church's Olana and the Thomas Cole Site will open on November 22 and run through March 28, 2027. The exhibition is a capstone celebration of Frederic Church 200, a year celebrating the bicentennial of Church’s birth.

The Olana Partnership, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site made the announcement Wednesday and the exhibition will accompany a primary exhibition of Grasso’s work at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts―the largest solo exhibition to date in the United States devoted to the artist.

Grasso calls the exhibitions, as well as a related presentation at Burlington City Arts in Vermont, “a constellation.” He notes that each location develops a different aspect of his practice while extending the conceptual environment of the project beyond the boundaries of a single institution.

At Olana and the Thomas Cole Site, the exhibition engages with the histories of both artist’s homes by introducing contemporary works into spaces shaped by other periods, creating an encounter between different temporalities.

Each work evokes a sense of chronological strangeness, making it difficult to situate precisely in time. Across this dual exhibition, Grasso examines the way the natural world is represented today, between nostalgia, fascination, and anxiety. This reflection is informed by his recent interest in the Hudson River School, which has become a source of inspiration for several of his new paintings.

“In a year that has already seen an unprecedented surge of interest in Frederic Church’s artwork and legacy, as we celebrate the bicentennial of his birth in 1826, The Olana Partnership is honored to collaborate with Laurent Grasso on this unique installation that speaks to the continued relevance of artists who urge us to examine our role in the natural world, and inspire critical conversations about human-made threats to our environment,” said Maggie Dimock, associate curator for The Olana Partnership.

“Grasso’s work follows in the footsteps of Church and Cole, who both employed awe and mystery to inspire reflection,” Dimock added.

The exhibition at Olana will be within the spaces of the historic house and include a presentation of Grasso’s film Orchid Island (2023), filmed off the coast of Taiwan, which deconstructs idealized representations of pristine and untouched nature by introducing an enigmatic black rectangle into the landscape. The exhibition also includes never-before-exhibited oil paintings from the artist’s ongoing series, Studies into the Past, a long-term conceptual project consisting of paintings whose style and method of execution draw direct inspiration from art of past centuries.

At Olana, Grasso says his paintings “each directly inspired by landscapes painted by Church, occupy available spaces within the house and, in selected instances, temporarily replace works already on view. This process of infiltration creates a new experience, while remaining attentive to the density and character of its original hanging.”

Grasso's strange celestial, geological, and atmospheric phenomena merge almost imperceptibly with Church’s landscapes.

“Considered as a whole,” he continues, “the installation creates moments of uncertainty in which historical and contemporary images become difficult to distinguish.”

The exhibition at the Thomas Cole Site will include Cole’s oil painting Landscape with Clouds (1846-47), which is juxtaposed with Grasso’s film Anima (2022), his neon Projection and Eternal Flame (2024), his red marble sculpture Panoptes (2019), and a new never-before-seen painting, inspired by Cole, in the series, Studies into the Past.

Grasso selected the works presented at the Thomas Cole Site based on their relationship to Cole's work and, in particular, Landscape with Clouds.

“This selection of works for the Thomas Cole National Historic Site reflects an inquiry into how the perception of landscape has shaped our relationship to the world—between contemplation, exploration, and the power of representation,” Grasso said.

“Cole’s legacy, at the intersection of art, science, and a spiritual vision of nature, resonates with my own research into the zones of ambiguity between reality and fiction, observation and mental projection. By revisiting this foundational site of the American gaze upon the landscape, I intend to explore the enduring tension between nature and artifice, between a romantic vision and contemporary technologies of perception,” he added.

Maura O’Shea, executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, said they are thrilled to present the joint exhibition.

“Laurent Grasso has a unique and fascinating way of exploring the timelessness of the paintings of Thomas Cole and his student Frederic Church, two foundational American artists whose work resonates through centuries and around the world,” O’Shea said.

“Grasso makes clear through his own work that landscape transcends time periods and is a subject more relevant today than ever,” she added. “Our historic sites will be enriched and empowered by this site-specific exploration.”