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Art and agriculture have been interwoven for much of human existence.
There are ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics depicting farmers plowing fields with bulls, medieval images of reapers and rakers, followed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “The Harvesters” (1565), and Jean-François Millet’s mid-19th century sowers and gleaners, and Vincent van Gogh’s “Farmers Planting Potatoes” (1884) and Claude Monet’s “Grainstack, Sun in the Mist” (1891).
Later comes Piet Mondrian’s “Farm at Duivendrecht” (1916) and the most famous painting of a pitchfork in art history in Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” (1930) and Andrew Wyeth’s pastoral “Christina’s World” in 1948, which while not about agriculture itself, speaks to longing, resilience and independence.
That tradition continues in “agriCultural: A Biennial Exhibition” at the New Bedford Art Museum in partnership with the Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership (SEMAP), formed in 1998 as a “Buy Local” organization to connect regional farmers to vital resources and to educate the public on the value of local food.
The artwork in the juried exhibition was created by artists who are also farmers, and vice versa, and artists who are significantly inspired by the world of agriculture. A curatorial statement notes that “the work highlights the intersectionality in the art of farming, the act of creating and the important cultural need agriculture holds in our communities and our culture.”
Meghan Murray’s “Fans of the Old Coke Say the New is Not It (June 12, 1985)” is an oil painting depicting a man struggling to lead two enormous and uncooperative yoked bovines. It appears to be a county fair with spectators in the background and a trio of judges looking on. The oddly-titled work is based on a found photograph. And what of that title? New Coke was introduced on March 25, 1985, in what many consider to be the biggest marketing blunder of all time. Seventy-nine days later (on June 12), Coca-Cola bowed to market pressure and brought back the original formula. Yee-haw!
“Lettuce” is a crisp black-and-white photographic print by Steven Ashley. Taken in 2023, it is an old shed, owned by his brother in western Massachusetts, with a sign cocked at an angle advertising the greens and a sign noting that Sept. 28, 2014, was the date of a “WILL BIKE 4 FOOD” event for a local food bank. The wood of the shed is weathered and at first glance, one might mistake it for a detailed pencil drawing. Ashley notes that the picture served as a catalyst for him to explore the state’s rural environments and landscapes.
Kitt Shaffer painted “Treaty Rock Farm” in Little Compton as part of a Westport Art Group weekly plein-air painting session, primarily done with a palette knife in order to preserve a loose gestural feel. A tractor sits right off the bend of a dirt road by a wire fence, with the Sakonnet River in the background. It is rendered with just the right ratio of rustic to romantic.
Painted in 1972, JP Powel’s “Panic Grasses” is a superb work. The golden clusters (also known as switchgrass) appear almost serpentine and fill the canvas with as much energy, motion and emotional intensity as a Jackson Pollock painting while remaining firmly within the realm of the real.
“Numinous Among the Ten Thousand Things” by John Borowicz is a monochromatic oil painting, rendered in delicate shades of gray. In a field stands a single cow, staring straight back at the viewer. Borowicz is as much a draftsman as he is a painter and the work is intense and staggering. In Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and in some African and Indigenous-American cultures, the cow is considered a divine creature. The word “numinous” suggests a spiritual quality. And the term “ten thousand things” is a metaphor for the vast array of experiences and realities present in the world. And with this painting, Borowicz provides something very close to numinosity itself.
Mixed-media artist Nathan Sander displays “Nothing But Flowers, 1 & 2,” side by side. Created in 2024, the work is made from collaged elements, acrylic paint, spray paint, colored pencil and epoxy resin. In an artist statement, he refers to the work as an examination of “our current moment; a paradoxical state of affairs riddled with existential threats and buoyed by limited potential.” The works are populated with references to nature in general and hummingbirds in particular. Of course, “(Nothing But) Flowers” is from “Naked,” a Talking Heads album from 1988. A sampling of a few lyrics might inform his thinking (and mine): “two fools in love so beautiful and strong / the birds in the trees are smiling upon them…”
Jason Fiering is an artist and scientist working in New Bedford and Boston and his work currently involves the botany of urban weeds. His “Common Weed: Bromus Tectorum (Downy Brome)” was drawn with colored pencils and graphite.
He describes Downy Brome, which is also known as Cheat, as an invasive species in North America that becomes troublesome in grazing pastures and grasslands. And he also describes it as “seductively attractive, with its long drooping florets weaving in the breeze.”
The exhibition also branches away the farms and fields to explore agriculture’s connection to the apian, the undersea, the winery, to industrial uses for hemp, and to the supermarket parking lot.
After spending nearly 40 years as a watercolorist, Susan Medyn shifted to eco-art after studying in the Master Beekeeper program at Cornell University. Distressed by pollinator decline, she decided to collaborate with honeybees, exploring interspecies communication as a shared process and art form. Her “Shared Architecture” is a three-dimensional work that includes chair caning material, prisms, twigs and beeswax. The work by the human and the bees is intriguing and handsome.
Rhode Island-based Alexander Caserta has been working on a series of paintings, drawings and documentary films that explore the farming and fishing industries, soil regeneration, food production, climate change and related subjects. His “Giant Wing Oyster,” created with oil paint and cold wax, emphasizes the hard exterior of the protective shell in stark contrast with the delicateness of the soft interior.
Erica Driver painted “Bottling Line at Sakonnet Vineyard” on site in Little Compton. It is precise and angular and quiet. And it is a reminder that the work of agriculture doesn’t end at the vineyard or the orchard or the dairy farm or at the henhouse or the pier.
Thierry Andrianambinina, a multidisciplinary artist, designer and researcher from Madagascar, has been exploring hemp as a potential building material within the island nation’s cultural and architectural history. He approaches agriculture as “a regenerative strategy” that can provide materials, technologies, and livelihoods that connect and build communities.
He explores the possibility of reconsidering hemp beyond the “stigma” of recreational marijuana. His “Reintroducing Hemp into the Material Palette” (a set of small building blocks and mini hempcrete bricks) is nestled somewhere between art and science, much like architecture.
Kara Dunne is a printmaker and performance artist who displays “Shopping Cart Shepherds,” a clever book that explores the connections between a traditional shepherd that kept his flock together to the best of his ability (even if one or two might sneak off and need to be found again) and a shopping cart attendant who continually regroups the carriages. The carts are his sheep.
And then there is “Rake 1” by Stephen Althouse. It is an image of black gothic-looking rake against an even blacker wall. The short tines look like a row or rotten teeth. It is draped in a white cloth, posed like Bela Lugosi. It would send that couple in “American Gothic” running into the cornfield. And, by the way, that couple was not really a couple.
“agriCultural: A Biennial Exhibition” is on display at the New Bedford Art Museum, 608 Pleasant St. until Nov. 29.
Don Wilkinson has been writing art reviews, artist profiles and cultural commentary on the South Coast for over a decade. He has been published in local newspapers and regional art magazines. He is a graduate of the Swain School of Design and the CVPA at UMass Dartmouth. Email him at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org
