Blue Sky is pleased to announce May Exhibition: Bastard Countryside by Robin Friend
First Thursday Opening: May 4, 5 - 8 PM
In-Person Artist Talk: Sat, May 6, 4 PM

Robin Friend’s Bastard Countryside collects together 15 years worth of exploration within the British landscape, dwelling on what Victor Hugo called the ‘bastard countryside’: “somewhat ugly but bizarre, made up of two different natures.” Friend’s large-format color images scrutinize these in-between, unkempt, and often surreal marginal areas of the country, highlighting frictions between the pastoral sublime and the discarded, often polluted reality of the present. Starting from a classical landscape tradition, Friend’s meticulous 5x4 photographs are given heightened effect through exaggerations of color and composition, embodying friction between British pastoral ideals and present reality. In particular, Friend follows moments in which the expected narrative of the landscape is rudely interrupted through leakage, pollution, or the wreckage and containment of nature.

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Hours: Wed - Sat, 12 -5 PM