Satellite Exhibitions:
Metaphysical Maze
Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
November 7, 2026 – January 16, 2028
Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church's Olana
Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY
November 22, 2026 – March 28, 2027
Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Burlington City Arts
Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT
February 5 – March 28, 2027
Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church’s Olana and the Thomas Cole Site will present the work of acclaimed French conceptual artist Laurent Grasso at Olana, the historic artist home and landscape of Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, the historic home and studios of Thomas Cole (1801–1848). The joint exhibition provides site-specific engagement with relevant histories through which to view Grasso’s practice of integrating his work into settings of different time periods.
The exhibition at the Thomas Cole Site will include Thomas Cole’s oil painting Landscape with Clouds (1846–47), which is juxtaposed with Laurent Grasso’s film Anima, his neon sculptures Projection and Eternal Flame, his red marble sculpture Panoptes, and a new, never-before-seen painting, inspired by Thomas Cole, in his Studies into the Past. Playing off the clouds in Cole’s painting, Grasso explores that element in other media. In doing so, he transfers the concept to both the less-material film and the most-material neon.
