Kevin Beasley’s Colossal Sculpture Inaugurates Storm King Art Center’s $53 Million Capital Project

As the rain cleared on Saturday afternoon, light poured through the spaces between each triptych panel of the towering tetraptych sculpture crafted from cast-resin slabs to represent the four seasons. Viewing from a distance in the South Fields of Storm King Art Center, it was unclear what mediums were used to create an array of colorful swatches. As visitors approached, they examined the thickly layered articles of clothing (promotional graphic T-shirts, patterned dresses, children’s pants with adjustable elastic waists, sourced from thrift shops, friends, and the artist’s own wardrobe), along with farm tools, plants, and seeds.

On the reverse, the seasons are represented with imagery evoking the moods of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Viewers navigate the noticeable shifts in weather patterns, plant life, and animal behavior, and how those changes impact our emotions. The installation took over a former parking lot, exemplifying Storm King’s mission of marrying landscape and art.

The slender openings between each triptych frame of the quadriptych reveal the rolling hills, verdant fields, and woodlands, drawing us even closer to the monumental installation and underscoring the poetic alliance of sculpture and landscape that defines the ethos of Storm King.

Kevin Beasley’s site-specific installation PROSCENIUM| Rebirth / Growth: The Watch / Harvest / Dormancy: On Reflection (2024–25) inaugurates Storm King’s Tippetts Field, which transforms a parking lot into an interactive, immersive art space. Beasley’s largest work to date, sprawling 100 feet wide and soaring 11 feet tall, compels us to reconsider our place in the universe.

“These bright batches of color are actually individual garments that are pressed together into these panels. All of the clothing is saturated in a UV resistant resin, and then they’re placed into these frames. What we’re seeing is the top layer of a process that starts on the other side,” Storm King Director of Learning & Engagement Hannah des Cognets told a small group tour. “There’s a layer of resin, there’s some mark-making, which we’ll see on the other side, and then these layers of saturated clothing are laid on the top. It’s compressed and then baked in an oven to cure the resin. The other thing to point out from this angle are these big buttresses, which are part of a formal reference to acoustic mirrors, which is an early technology used in World War I focusing sound and detecting approaching ships or planes. … Kevin is referencing that form, both with these buttresses and with the curve. … You’ll notice some interesting things happening with sound when we come around the front side.”

Before the invention of radar, parabolic sound mirrors were used experimentally as early-warning devices by military air defense forces to detect incoming enemy aircraft by listening for the sound of their engines.

Beasley (b. Lynchburg, Va, 1985) examines the magnitude of myriad environmental, cultural, and political facets of the American landscape, an inquiry that resonates deeply with visitors at Storm King. His singular process includes rendering each scene with gestural marks in resin, Sharpie, and various casting techniques. The effect is a richly-layered artwork, where the range of textures amplify the multi-seasonal narrative. A close inspection of the sides of each frame evokes the varied topography, offering glimpses into the breadth of collected materials comprising stratification.

As the title suggests, the installation’s curved form borrows from proscenium staging, which originated in open-air theaters of ancient Greece and Rome. The term originally referred to the row of columns at the front of the skene (scene building), supporting a raised acting platform, and later expanded to encompass the area in front of the stage where the actors performed.

Not only is Beasley’s work itself performative as it invites multiple interpretations, his artistic practice incorporates sound and performance to convey the histories and lived experiences embedded in the American landscape. Beasley’s family has owned land in Valentines, Virginia, for over a century, and his work reflects on stewardship, farming, and the legacies of colonialism. His engagement with the landscape at Storm King opens a complicated dialogue with the Hudson River School, a mid-19th-century American art movement that celebrated the beauty and spirituality of the American landscape, particularly the Hudson River Valley.

“Landscape is a word to ask questions around,” says Beasley. “For some folks it means freedom, and for others it means something you can’t access . . . [it] tells a deep story and speaks in ways that encourage us to absorb experiences.”

Beasley will activate the exhibition with a collaborative performance, Growth: The Watch, on Saturday, July 19, and Sunday, July 20.

The exhibition is organized by Storm King Executive Director Nora Lawrence and Associate Curator Eric Booker, with Assistant Curator Adela Goldsmith.

An opening reception on Saturday celebrated the 2025 Exhibitions by Beasley, Brazilian contemporary artist Sonia Gomes (co-curated with Larry Ossei-Mensah, co-founder of Art Noir), and American photographer Dionne Lee, as well as a $53 million redesign project which invites more sculpture to collaborate with the landscape.

“We have a graceful and beautiful entry to Storm King with an environmentally conscious design, a group canopy, a ticket pavilion and a really gorgeous restroom,” said Lawrence. “On the way out, the creation of this beautiful pavilion allowed us to reclaim two large parking lots, five acres of land for nature and art, one in our North Meadow and the other Tippetts Field right outside here, which both used to be parking lots. The unparalleled spaces that Storm King provides for the display of sculpture have met their match in a new building that we have devoted to that same artworks’ care.”

This exhibition is made possible with major support by Roberta and Steven Denning, the Hazen Polsky Foundation, and the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, with lead support by Janet Benton and David Schunter, Jennifer Brorsen and Richard DeMartini, Agnes Gund, Lipman Family Foundation, and Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, with support also provided by Regen Projects and supported in part by Candace Carmel Barasch, Allison and Larry Berg, and The Girlfriends Fund.

This project is supported through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development, and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism.