French artist's work coming to Thomas Cole Site and Olana

CATSKILL—The historic homes of two of America's most influential landscape painters will become the setting for a contemporary art exhibition that explores the relationship between nature, history and the passage of time.

The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and Olana State Historic Site in Hudson will jointly present Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church's Olana and the Thomas Cole Site, featuring paintings, films and sculptures by French conceptual artist Laurent Grasso.

The exhibition opens November 22 and runs through March 28, 2027, bringing Grasso's contemporary works into the former homes of Thomas Cole and his student, Frederic Church, two central figures of the Hudson River School art movement.

Rather than displaying the artwork in traditional gallery settings, the exhibition will incorporate Grasso's pieces into the historic interiors, placing them alongside works by the 19th-century painters.

The exhibition also marks the conclusion of Frederic Church 200, a yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of Church's birth in 1826.

At the Thomas Cole Site, visitors will encounter several of Grasso's works displayed in relation to Cole's oil painting Landscape with Clouds, created between 1846 and 1847.

The installation will include Grasso's 2022 film Anima, his 2024 neon work Projection and Eternal Flame, a red marble sculpture titled Panoptes and a previously unseen painting inspired by Cole.

Grasso said his selection of works reflects an interest in how landscape painting has influenced people's understanding of the natural world.

“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,” he said.

At Olana, Grasso's paintings will be incorporated into the historic house, with some temporarily replacing works normally on display.

The paintings are part of his ongoing series Studies into the Past, which draws inspiration from artistic styles and techniques of earlier centuries. Several new works are directly influenced by Church's landscapes and have never been exhibited before.

Visitors will also see Grasso's 2023 film Orchid Island, filmed off the coast of Taiwan. The film challenges idealized images of untouched nature by introducing an unexplained black rectangle into the landscape.

Grasso said the placement of his paintings within Olana is intended to create uncertainty about which works belong to the past and which are contemporary.

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

Maura O'Shea, executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, said the collaboration offers a new way to examine the influence of Cole and Church.

“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.

She added that the exhibition demonstrates how landscape remains a relevant subject for contemporary artists.

Maggie Dimock, associate curator for The Olana Partnership, said Grasso's work also builds on the environmental themes explored by the two Hudson River School painters.

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

Born in France in 1972, Grasso is known for multidisciplinary works that combine art, science and history, often exploring phenomena that cannot be readily seen or explained. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

The Catskill and Hudson installations are part of a larger exhibition project centered at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts.

That exhibition, also titled Metaphysical Maze, opened November 7 and continues through January 16, 2028. It is described as the largest solo exhibition of Grasso's work presented in the United States to date.

A related presentation is also planned at Burlington City Arts in Vermont.

The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, located in Catskill, is the former home and studio of the artist credited with founding the Hudson River School. Olana, across the Hudson River, was the home of Church, who became one of the movement's most prominent painters.

For exhibition and visitor information, visit www.thomascole.org or www.olana.org.

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