About this Event
The Disappearance of Landscape: Oakleyville
Sheyla Baykal, Peter Hujar, Matthew Leifheit, Paul Thek, & Ann Wilson
August 29 – March 20, 2027
This exhibition investigates the practices of five artists who lived and worked between New York City and the sparsely populated Fire Island community of Oakleyville from the mid-1960s to present day: Sheyla Baykal (1944–1997), Peter Hujar (1934–1987), Matthew Leifheit (b. 1988), Paul Thek (1933–1988), and Ann Wilson (1931-2023).
Located about an hour outside of New York City, accessible primarily by boat, and traversable mostly by foot, Fire Island is best known as a site of sexual liberation and natural escape for New Yorkers over the course of the twentieth century. Unincorporated and unlisted on maps, Oakleyville is an inholding within Fire Island's storied maritime holly forest. Beginning in 1964, the community (or Oakleyville) became a nexus for an interconnected network of queer Downtown New York artists.
Featuring a selection of paintings, photographs, and sculptures made by the artists while in Oakleyville, the exhibition recognizes the environment as a collaborator and dictating force in artists' work, rather than strictly a subject to be represented or a site upon which artists impose ideology. It presents Baykal, Hujar, Leifheit, Thek, and Wilson's relationships to Fire Island as symbiotic, exploring how climate, ecological force, and nonhuman life collaborated and choreographed their work.
Current scientific literature projects that significant portions of Fire Island will be underwater within the next thirty to fifty years, with the maritime holly forest among the first ecosystems expected to disappear. As rising sea levels and the exponentially accelerating climate crisis reshape our global coastlines, Oakleyville itself will eventually become inaccessible to humans.
Against this backdrop, The Disappearance of Landscape: Oakleyville, 1964–2022 reflects on Fire Island as both a site of artistic community and a fragile environment increasingly under threat, foregrounding the role of landscape not simply as a subject of representation, but as an active force in the creation of art.
This exhibition is curated by Noah Khoshbin & Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Robert D.L. Gardiner Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Blue Rider Group and the Rick and Debbie Kleeman Charitable Fund.
Additional Information
PLEASE NOTE: Please arrive 15 minutes early to allow for the check-in process. Advance registration is required. Space is limited.
For more information about The Watermill Center Tour or to make private group reservations, please email [email protected] or call (631) 726-4628.
Please note, tours of the building may require the use of stairs. The Watermill Center is committed to providing accessible programs and services for all patrons and artists with disabilities. For further information and accommodations, please email us at [email protected].
Event venue & nearby stays
The Watermill Center, 39 Watermill Towd Rd., Water Mill, United States
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