• The sky we stand on

  • Coinciding with the Getty’s landmark initiative, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles is pleased to present The sky we stand on, an exhibition of gallery artists who explore the intersections of art and science, both past and present. In a diverse range of mediums, the artists address the ongoing effects of human industry and technological advancements on our planet, evoking the beauty and fragility of our landscape and climate.

  • detail of sarah sze sculpture
    Addressing temporality, evolution, and decay, several works speculate on the world’s past and future. Sarah Sze’s fragmented Divide Light if you Dare (Fallen Sky Series) recalls eroded, ancient architecture, collapsing the horizon line with its mirrored steel surface. Complemented by sculptural arrangements from her Nest and Fragment series, Sze explores the idea of fragmentation as it pertains to the delicate balance and order of the universe and landscape.
    • Image Divide Light if you Dare (Fallen Sky Series)
      Sarah Sze, Divide Light if you Dare (Fallen Sky Series), 2021
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    • Image of Landing (Nest Series)
      Sarah Sze, Landing (Nest Series), 2011
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    • Image of Storm with Paint Hanging (Fragment Series).
      Sarah Sze, Storm with Paint Hanging (Fragment Series), 2015
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  • Yuko Mohri’s Decomposition series taps into the life cycle of decaying fruit, while Jónsi’s Tremor, an auditory work inspired by the movement of tectonic plates, evokes a rich and otherworldly landscape that speaks to the temporal vibration of both vocal cords and earthquakes.This same fragility of landscape is referenced in Olafur Eliasson’s painting Colour experiment no. 115 (Jokullsalon), which is composed of a gradient based on the spectrum of colors found in a photograph of an Icelandic landscape, over which layers of pure pigment are mixed with melting sea ice from the same region.
    • Image of Decomposition.
      Yuko Mohri, Decomposition, 2024
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    • Image of Tremor.
      Jónsi, Tremor, 2024
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    • Image of Colour experiment no. 115 (Jökullsalon)
      Olafur Eliasson, Colour experiment no. 115 (Jökullsalon) , 2023
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    • Image of Image of Kaleidoscope for solar amplification..
      Olafur Eliasson, Kaleidoscope for solar amplification, 2024
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    • Image of More ice is very nice .
      Olafur Eliasson, More ice is very nice , 2024
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  • Through a macro lens, the landscape and history of Los Angeles is explored in the work of Charles Long, whose sculptural form belies its source material: bird droppings that were observed and photographed along the concrete banks of the LA River. Mark Dion’s humorous diagrammatic drawings blend artifice and reality to examine the ways that dominant ideologies or institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. After an extended residency, replicas of these drawings, among others, are on view as part of Excavations, Dion’s PST exhibition at the La Brea Tar Pits. Exploring ideas around environmentalism and the place of humans in nature, Dana Powell’s intimate paintings offer vignettes charged with anxiety or anticipation, while Laura Lima’s ethereal Levianes punctures the liminal zone between this world and the next, incorporating a surreal and evolving atmosphere using tulle and dissipating dry ice.
    • Image of Untitled.
      Charles Long, Untitled, 2013
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    • Image of Camelops hesternus.
      Mark Dion, Camelops hesternus, 2024
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    • Image of Mammuthus columbi.
      Mark Dion, Mammuthus columbi, 2024
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    • Image of Firework
      Dana Powell, Firework, 2024
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    • Image of Pond
      Dana Powell, Pond, 2024
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    • Image of Moon ring 2.
      Dana Powell, Moon ring 2, 2024
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    • Image of pink moon.
      Dana Powell, Pink moon, 2024
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    • Image of Sunset.
      Dana Powell, Sunset, 2024
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  • The beauty, prescience, and evolving nature of this planet’s speculative future cannot be separated from the billions of people and millions of species that inhabit it. Tomás Saraceno’s Hybrid Dark semi-social solitary Cluster FK5 384 built by: an ensemble of Cyrtophora citricola - three weeks, a solo Linyphia triangularis - one week, a suspended spider web, offers a closer look into the complex social and spatial structures of naturally made architecture, which act as a model and metaphor for human settlements and networking. 
  • Systems for codifying information and new, trial and error technological methodologies are explored in new works by Analia Saban, which expand the two and three-dimensional qualities of painting and sculpture; while Lisa Oppenheim’s Landscape Portrait offers a glimpse into the intricacies of tree species that form an abstract landscape or otherworldly topology.
    • Image of saban work.
      Analia Saban, TBD, 2024
    • Images of saban's woven work.
      Analia Saban, TBD, 2024
    • Image of Landscape Portraits (Engineered Eastern Red Cedar) (Version I).
      Lisa Oppenheim, Landscape Portraits (Engineered Eastern Red Cedar) (Version I), 2015
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  • Throughout the exhibition, micro and macro perceptions of the expanded universe and man-made systems are put into consideration, questioning the balance – or precariousness – of both present and future.