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Travel

18 Artists Reimagine the Great Cross-Country Road Trip

Photography, painting, and mixed-media works rethink road trip clichés, travel, and the American landscape.
Brea Souders, Film Electric, 2013, archival pigment print 16 x 20 in, 40.6 x 50.8 cm, Edition of 8, 2AP

The legend of the cross-country American road trip has been explored across art forms and genres, but a new exhibition attempts to reexamine the classic trope through a contemplation of landscapes, driving culture, and vacations in America. Open until July 8th at Joshua Liner gallery, the cleverly named Land Escapes is a group show that features painting, photography, and mixed-media works. The pieces reflect upon the liberation and loneliness associated with road trips and playfully experiments with the longstanding traditions of landscape painting and photography.

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Jim Mangan, Red, 2012, archival pigment print 36 x 24 in, 91.4 x 61 cm. Edition 1/1

Each artist’s personal travel experience and relationship to the American landscape makes for a complicated and multifaceted exhibit. Jim Mangan, for example, has documented the isolation of driving with a series of aerial photographs depicting one lone car surrounded by immense and desolate desert. Brea Souders, who uses static electricity to hold together her sculptures, turned film slivers into a miniature landscape, and then photographed the results. Letha Wilson literally reshapes landscape photography through her clever photographic sculptures. And Matthew Brandt, who has included nature in his work by soaking his paintings of bodies of water in the very water depicted, presents a series of photos created with ink and paper made from the photographed trees. Through these extremely varied approaches to the same core themes, the artists participating in Land Escapes create a thought-provoking collection which is both personal and insightful.

Letha Wilson, Land Escapes (Nevada Push), 2016, archival pigment print, wood, hole in wall. Wood Dimensions: 240 x 6 x 2 in. Image Dimensions: 42 x 34 in

Land Escapes is on view until July 8, 2016 at Joshua Liner Gallery in New York. To learn more about the exhibit, find more information, here.

Related:

The Desert is the Canvas in Jim Mangan's Aerial Photo Series 'BLAST'

Taking the Sun On a Road Trip

For Your Next Trip, Vacation with an Artist