Boston Flora

Tag: DeCordova

  • Through Sunday, May 31, 2026 – Land Portal

    Land Portal is a walking tour and published resource by artists Ellie Irons and Aubrie James that reveals ecological and geological features throughout deCordova’s Sculpture Park. Through this project, Irons and James aim to “foster a sense of place (in space, and in time) by calling attention to the ‘background’—the vast, alive, and ever-transforming ‘negative space’ that makes up the parts of the museum and park that are not sculptures or artworks.”

    By following their annotated map, visitors are drawn to lesser-known environmental sites of deCordova’s campus, including unique tree specimens, remnants of earlier agricultural land use, and bedrock shaped by glacial sheets. At each station, visitors can follow a series of activations to connect sky and earth and ground themselves further within the surrounding landscape.

    Ellie Irons is an artist and educator living and working on Mohican land in current-day Troy, New York, USA. From foraged watercolor paintings to un-lawning experiments, her work combines socially engaged art, ecology fieldwork, and embodied learning. She is a co-founder of the Next Epoch Seed Library and the Environmental Performance Agency, collaborations investigating relationships between humans and spontaneous urban plants (aka weeds). Her solo and collaborative work has been part of recent exhibitions on contemporary environmental art, including Seeds: Containers of a World to Come at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator at Wave Hill, and Unsettled Nature at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Her work has been covered by publications ranging from Art in America to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Irons received a BA from Scripps College in Los Angeles and an MFA from Hunter College in New York. In December 2021, she completed a PhD in arts practice at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, focused on socially engaged environmental art. Her book Feral Hues: A Guide to Painting with Weeds was published by PS Hudson in spring 2023. She is currently Co-Director of The Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab.

    Aubrie James is an artist and scientist who uses her intimate understanding of ecology to probe systems of knowing—scientific, artistic, and otherwise. Her wide-ranging art practice intervenes on scientific convention to theorize ecology as an interactive practice of co-constructing internal (psychic) and external (material, organismic) landscapes. Holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Ecology from Iowa State University and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, her research led her to question how scientific convention had limited her perception and communication of the natural world. Her art practice began as scientific experiments which were covertly designed as land art, and has expanded to include sculpture, multimedia installation, and walks. She formalized her artistic practice with a Master of Science Degree in Art, Culture, and Technology at MIT. Her artworks have been exhibited at the MIT Museum, MIT.nano, and the Weisner Gallery in Cambridge, MA; the Distillery Gallery in Boston, MA; and Espacio Enredo in Madrid, Spain. Her ongoing scientific research focuses on plant biodiversity and has most recently been published in academic journals including Ecology Letters, Ecological Monographs, and Ecology. She currently lives and works in Queens, New York.

    The exhibit will be on view at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln, through May 31, 2026. For more information visit https://thetrustees.org/exhibit/land-portal/

  • Thursday, February 25, 6:30 pm – Virtual Rappaport Prize Lecture: Sonya Clark

    On February 25, beginning at 6:30 Eastern time, the DeCordova Museum presents a free virtual talk by acclaimed artist Sonya Clark, recipient of the 2020 Rappaport Prize. Clark (b. 1967, Washington, D.C.) is Professor of Art at Amherst College and best known as a fiber artist whose powerful work addresses issues of race, history, and culture. In her artwork, Clark turns everyday items such as hair combs and flags into aesthetic objects. Across all mediums, Clark challenges viewers to make connections between past and present, probing the roots of racial and national identities, and highlighting links between the founding of the United States, the institution of slavery, and contemporary practices of policing and incarceration.

    Created in 2000 and endowed in 2010, the Rappaport Prize is an annual art award presented by deCordova through the generosity of the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation. To register visit https://thetrustees.org/event/59354/

  • Now Through July 4, 2021 – Platform 27: The Wild Within

    PLATFORM 27: Rachel Mica Weiss, The Wild Within is a newly commissioned work by Pittsburgh and Brooklyn-based artist Rachel Mica Weiss. An undulating slab of concrete poses atop a reflective steel plinth. Made specifically for deCordova’s Sculpture Park, The Wild Within, evokes the reclining female nude, a common motif in art history. Using industrial materials and monumental proportions, Weiss’s piece turns a symbol of objectification into one of balance, strength, and sculptural innovation.

    PLATFORM is a series of one-person commissioned projects by early-and mid-career artists from New England, national, and international art communities that engage with deCordova’s unique landscape. The PLATFORM series lets artists expand their practice and visitors experience new approaches to contemporary sculpture.

    PLATFORM 27 is generously funded in part by an Investing in Professional Artists grant from The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Opportunity Fund.  

  • Through June 1, 2021 – PLATFORM 26 – Tree …#2

    For PLATFORM 26, South Korean photographer Myoung Ho Lee adapts one of his singular Tree photographs for a large-scale billboard set in deCordova’s verdant Sculpture Park. Traveling across South Korea and Mongolia, Lee searches for stunning, solitary trees to photograph. Once he finds the perfect subject, a production crew hoists a blank canvas behind the tree as Lee captures it with his large format camera. He later digitally erases the cranes, ropes, and assistants, leaving only traces of their existence in the final composition. Tree…#2 distills the natural beauty of Lee’s travels, while also revealing the performative nature of photography that is often concealed.

    PLATFORM is a series of one-person commissioned projects by early-and mid-career artists from New England, national, and international art communities that engage with deCordova’s unique landscape. The PLATFORM series lets artists expand their practice and visitors experience new approaches to contemporary sculpture. Free with admission to the park, located at 51 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln. For more information visit https://thetrustees.org/exhibit/platform-26-myoung-ho-lee-tree-2/

  • Sunday, July 29, 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm – Sunset on the Charles: Composition and Low Light Shooting Workshop

    This Museum of Fine Arts Boston workshop on Sunday, July 29 from 6 – 9:30 combines low-light shooting and formal composition techniques while photographing along the banks of the Charles River. Cover a variety of technical strategies for achieving intriguing photographs while shooting during the “golden hour,” twilight, dusk, and at night.

    Students must bring their own DSLR camera with manual settings and supplies. Students are responsible for providing their own supplies. View the supply list by going to https://www.mfa.org/programs/studio-art-classes/adult/supply-list.

    MFA members $50, nonmembers $65. Order online at https://www.mfa.org/programs/studio-art-class/sunset-on-the-charles-composition-and-low-light-shooting-workshop-0 To order tickets by phone, call 1-800-440-6975; to order in person, visit any MFA ticket desk.

    Instructor Georgie Friedman received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with Tufts University (2008) and her BA from UC, Santa Cruz (1996). Recent exhibitions include: Ripple Effect, Peabody Essex Museum, MA (2011-12); Above the Clouds (solo), concurrent exhibit at Carroll and Sons & Anthony Greaney, MA (2011); The 2010 DeCordova Biennial, MA; among others. She teaches a variety of photography and video based classes at several local institutions, including Boston College, SMFA and MassArt. Her current projects include photographic works and experiential video installations that highlight our physical relationship to interior vs. exterior elements and uncontrollable natural forces.