Sky High Farm, the nonprofit working at the intersection of climate, agriculture, food access, and education, is pleased to announce its inaugural biennial, TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END, curated by founder and board president Dan Colen. On view from June 28th through October 25th in a historic apple cold storage warehouse along the Hudson River in Germantown, NY, the exhibition marks the beginning of a new chapter for the artist-founded organization as it expands onto a new 560-acre farm.
TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END is a site-specific exhibition exploring the relationship between local ecology, history, and industry in the Hudson River Valley and its connection to New York City. It raises questions of legacy and impact — from tectonic shifts to colonialism — and asks: What do we carry with us and what do we leave behind? Rooted in Sky High Farm’s community-centered mission to address interconnected issues such as nutrition security and systemic injustice, the exhibition demonstrates what’s possible when art, agriculture, and activism function as one — uniting the culture-shifting work of artists and the impact of a justice-driven organization.
“Sky High is able to affect so many people because it has operated across various modes — from art practice to public health to ecological research. The farm was born out of a desire to move away from the business side of making art and rediscover how art can connect us. It required a belief in creating new structures and models for change, and that commitment is exemplified in this exhibition. To have 50 artists respond to Sky High’s work in their own voices has been revelatory: they’ve rephrased our mission and amplified the scope and texture of our work — often so personal and community-based — while bringing it to a larger audience,”
said Sky High Farm Founder & Board President Dan Colen.
The biennial brings together more than 50 artists from around the world, including Anne Imhof, Félix González-Torres Foundation, Tschabalala Self, Rudolf Stingel, Ben Wigfall Estate, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Some artworks engage directly with the existing environment — among them, Anne Imhof’s industrial water containers reference the banks of the Hudson River, evoking tension between industrial control and natural resources; Brian Jungen’s melted aluminum sculpture, forged from the wildfire that burned down his farm and studio; and Mark Armijo McKnight’s sundials installed on the farm’s new land.
The apple warehouse, in its raw and unaltered state with no drywall or windows, is as integral to the curatorial vision as the works themselves. Facing the Catskill Mountains, the warehouse symbolizes a man-made intervention dating back to the Industrial Revolution, when the railroad system adjacent to the building transferred goods to New York City (it now services Amtrak).
“The problems we work to address — food insecurity, unequal resource distribution, climate change — will require broad-based participation work to solve. We are so moved that so many artists, curators, advisors, and so many others in the art world see the urgency in the work we do and have made these generous commitments as a way of joining us,”
said Sky High Farm Co-Executive Directors Josh Bardfield and Sarah Workneh.
The biennial introduces an artist-led fundraising model that avoids traditional auctions and their vulnerabilities. This approach prioritizes flexibility, recognizing each artist’s circumstance is different, and that everyone benefits when artists define the terms themselves, including how they choose to donate a portion of their proceeds to the farm. These crucial funds will allow the farm to expand its work of cultivating and distributing nutrient-rich foods, offering educational programs on agriculture and climate action, and grants to catalyze and sustain food justice around the US and globally.
The exhibition memorializes artist Joey Piecuch, Sky High Farm’s first staff member and founding farmer, who passed away in 2014. Piecuch helped shape the farm’s earliest gardens and livestock operations, while his creative practice — guerrilla-style installations often made from found materials and situated in abandoned buildings or forests — embodied a deep sensitivity to place and interpersonal relationships. The title of the biennial references Piecuch’s artwork of the same name, which was discovered in a building on a barren farm (and later installed within the new owner’s home), serving as both a talisman and collective wish amidst a fragile future.
Exhibition Highlights
Pia Camil — Mimicking traditional grafting techniques, Camil will join several dead apple trees to act as the base for a water fountain. The trees will sit atop Rudolf Stingel’s reflective mirror flooring. Recycled water containers and plastic tubing guide the water down the tree, passing through Stingel’s floor, collecting into Imhof’s containers, which operate as the fountain’s well.
Félix González-Torres Foundation — Félix González-Torres’ billboard work “Untitled” (It’s Just a Matter of Time) will be installed on 24 billboards all located in proximity to the Hudson River, spanning from Troy, NY, down to New York City’s Harbor and tidal portion of the river. The message on the billboards can be read as a portend of the current political and environmental crises or an empowering call to action.
The Harrison Studio — During their lifetime, Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison dedicated their lives and practice to exploring climate, environment, and biodiversity. Existing completely within the windowless apple warehouse, The Harrison’s Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard stands as both a warning and possible solution to precarious food systems.
Anne Imhof — Anchoring the show are Imhof’s industrial water containers that create a labyrinth of hallways and interior spaces, which will hold other artists’ work. Post-show, they’ll be transformed into compost bioreactors for local farms — extending the installation’s life into the land it references.
Ut? Josephine Petit — The former Sky High Grant recipient is a visual artist and farmer. Petit works in painting, drawing, ceramics, and installation. For the exhibition, Petit addresses Black-Indigenous land-based traditions — particularly fishing and watermelon-picking in Louisiana and Mississippi — through her watercolor and ceramic work.
Marco Saavedra — Saavedra is a Mixteca painter, writer, and activist. His family’s Michelin-listed restaurant and mutual aid kitchen, La Morada, is a longtime partner organization of the farm’s.
Rudolf Stingel — Stingel presents his largest mirrored floor installation, which will serve as one single pedestal for other works to be placed upon. Taking its cues from the Hudson River, his floor creates a fluid convergence between each work, echoing the river’s tides and estuaries.
Ben Wigfall — As a painter, printmaker, and teacher who lived in the Hudson Valley from 1963 until his death in 2017, Wigfall dedicated his life to the surrounding community through art. Wigfall had a capacious artistic practice along with his visionary project, Communications Village — a community-based printshop, art gallery, and educational space. Founded in the same ethos of iconic artist-founded social projects like Just Above Midtown and Project Row Houses, Sky High Farm draws inspiration from Communications Village and Wigfall’s dedication to his local community. Wigfall’s audiographic recordings, Things My Father Told Me (1971-73), explore themes of displacement, racism, and alienation, as his father’s words recount the violence wrought by slavery and the resulting gaps in family histories.
Participating artists:
Autumn Ahn, Alvaro Barrington, Lauren Bon, Lizzi Bougatsos, Pia Camil, Anne Collier, CAConrad
Ann Craven, Sean Desiree, Natalie Diaz, Norman Douglas, Carroll Dunham, rafa esparza, Peter Fend
Yatika Starr Fields, Aaron Gilbert, Nan Goldin, Wade Guyton, Chase Hall, Lyle Ashton Harris, Harrison Studio, Roni Horn, Anne Imhof, Brian Jungen, Nance Klehm, Maia Ruth Lee, Stephen Lichty, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, Mark Armijo McKnight, Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Andrew Moore, Paulo Nazareth, Jade Kuriki Olivo (Puppies Puppies), Grace Rosario Perkins, Ut Josephine Petit, Joey Piecuch (Family), Thiago Rocha Pitta, Myron Polenberg, Richard Prince, Sarah Rara/Lucky Dragons, Em Rooney, Marcos Saavedra, Michael Sailstorfer Salem, Tschabalala Self, Marcus Leslie Singleton, Rudolf Stingel, Elaine Stocki, quori theodor, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Banks Violette, Charline von Heyl, Ben Wigfall Estate/ Communications Village with Lauren Halsey.
TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END, June 28th – October 25th, apple cold storage warehouse along the Hudson River in Germantown, NY– skyhighfarm.org/events/sky-high-farm-biennial-exhibition
About
Sky High Farm is committed to community-centered research and action to contribute solutions toward urgent and long-term issues at the intersection of climate, agriculture, food access and education. The farm’s work responds to urgencies in the food system by proposing a dynamic model — moving beyond a single issue to understand and address the interconnection of nutrition security, economic and health disparities, and the history of structural, racial, and educational injustice.
