Sky High Farm Hosts Over 50 Artists Alongside Hudson River to Combat Food Insecurity

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An artist-run non-profit organisation is teaming up with acclaimed artists like Anne Imhof, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tschabalala Self, and Félix González-Torres to fight food insecurity.

Gagosian artist Dan Colen’s Sky High Farm will feature site-specific work by over 50 artists in its first biennial between 28 June to 26 October this year.

The event, titled TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END, will see art on display in a historic apple cold storage warehouse along the Hudson River in Germantown, New York.

Executive directors Josh Bardfield and Sarah Workneh told Ocula the exhibition was realised in response to the myriad issues the organisation addresses—spanning climate, food systems, education, and justice—with recognition that art has a ‘specific ability to give language to complex relationships, feelings, and ideas’.

The announcement comes as the farm relocates to a larger, 560-acre site, with the aim of increasing its capacity to produce nutrient-dense foods for communities living in food deserts.

Diving into the Hudson Valley’s ecology, industry, and history, each work will seek to respond to the central question: ‘What do we carry with us and what do we leave behind?’

Highlights include Brian Jungen’s sculpture cast from metal salvaged from his studio after wildfires, Imhof’s industrial water containers nodding to the Hudson River, and Mark Armijo McKnight’s sundials carved in limestone, which featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art last year.

Artists will donate a portion of their proceeds to Sky High Farm, offering the non-profit an alternative funding model to support its food and climate activism.

Since 2011, Sky High Farm has partnered with local food banks, gifting their entire production to the urgent food system, while supporting food access programmes. 

Nowadays it distributes thousands of pounds of food during peak seasons, alongside offering a farming fellowship and micro grants totalling 350,000 USD.

Colen said the farm was born out of a desire to move away from the business side of making art and rediscover how art can connect people.

‘It required a belief in creating new structures and models for change, and that commitment is exemplified in this exhibition,’ he said

Proceeds will go toward supporting the organisation’s growth and distribution of food, teaching of sustainable agriculture, and supporting food justice initiatives. —[O]

Main image: Mark Armijo McKnight, Duet (2024). Courtesy Sky High Farm.