David Brooks, 2020 Fellow in Visual Arts, is an artist whose work considers the relationship between the individual and the built and natural environment. His work investigates how cultural concerns cannot be divorced from the natural world, while also questioning the terms under which nature is perceived and utilized. In this talk, he will delve into the liveliness and diversity of ecological systems, emphasizing our interdependence with the natural world. Through past and recent works, alongside ongoing research, Brooks will trace evolving notions of nature and consider how art might, at times, contribute directly to the ecosystems it engages.
David Brooks has had solo exhibitions and major projects at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; Storm King Art Center; MoMA/PS1; deCordova Museum; the Dallas Contemporary; Tang Museum; deCordova Museum, MA; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco; Galerie für Landschaftskunst, Hamburg; Nevada Museum of Art; Ballroom Marfa; the Sculpture Center, NYC; The Visual Arts Center, Austin; Cass Sculpture Foundation, UK; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha; ASU Art Museum, AZ; Crystal Bridges’ Momentary, AR; and the American Academy in Rome, among others. From 2011 to 2012 Brooks had Desert Rooftops on view in Times Square, a 5000-sq. ft. earthwork commissioned by Art Production Fund; from 2017 to 2018 a large-scale geologic installation on Governors Island as the inaugural commission by the Trust for Governors Island, NYC; as well as a growing earthwork, Budding Bird Blind, as the inaugural commission by Planting Fields Foundation, Oyster Bay, NY in 2020. He is the recipient of the Rome Prize, numerous research grants to the Amazon from the Coypu Foundation, and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. Brooks lives and works in New York, and is a professor at NYU Gallatin.
Image: Lonely Loricariidae, 2023-2024. Installation at Crystal Bridges’ Momentary.
Photo by the artist.
