Land Shapes

Landscape is never neutral or purely natural; rather, it is shaped by historical, social, and economic forces. Challenging conventional assumptions about what constitutes a landscape, "Land Shapes" investigates how environments are constructed, mediated, and interpreted by contemporary artists. The multi-media selection explores both the depiction of landscape and the viewpoints that inform its representation — drawing upon both dominant and suppressed voices."Land Shapes" highlights the work of Vincent Pomilio, Roxanne Bartel, Lanecia Rouse, Jana Harper, and Maria Magdelena Campos-Pons, whose treatments of landscape represent their diverse backgrounds, locations, and media. Artworks were selected by students in the course Exhibiting Historical Art—The Abstract Landscape, taught by Professor Kevin Murphy in spring 2026. The course traced the development of landscape painting in the U.S., from the 18th century when the realist influence of European landscapes was definitive, to the manifestation of American nationalism — specifically in the depiction of iconic American scenery by the Hudson River School — to abstract representations of the environment spurred by 20th-century modernism. The artists and their respective works reflect a continuing inquiry into what defines a landscape in the aftermath of colonial extraction and in a present marked by climate change. Curated by the students in HART 2810 — Angelica Harris, Angelica Hu, Aria Nie, Annie Pan, Yoyo Qian, J.C. Salubre, Charlotte Smith, Bethlihem Tesfazion, Vedika Vinayak, and Nikki Weitzenhoffer — under the direction of Kevin Murphy, Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg chair, professor and chair, History of Art and Architecture, with assistance from David Wilson, program coordinator, and Rachel Thompson, program manager, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy.