Confronting Wilderness: The Art of John Day

John Day's work has been involved with nature and the environment since 1980. His art practice includes installation, assemblage and drawing, focusing on wilderness experience, a concern for our relationship with nature, and the changes that we have wrought upon the natural world. In numerous journeys through forests and nature preserves in the northeast US, his encounters with natural phenomena are the source for his work, and comment on humanity's fragile, conflicted relationship with nature, with works that refer to journeying within, experiencing and confronting wilderness, revealing its mystery, power and unknowability.

In journeying through wilderness spaces, he acts as a hunter-gatherer, observing intently and collecting images, memories and natural materials to use in his work. These materials include tree branches, vines, reeds, and other elements in combination with photographic images, drawing/painting, text from field notes, and video. Branches are salvaged from fallen or dead trees. The gathering process prior to installation involves weeks or months of exploring off trails in nature preserves to find the right material. These elements are combined in works that immerse viewers in wilderness experience where they may contemplate the relationship and conflict between the installation they are standing in and what remains of the natural world. Some of these works combine stone age processes (lashing branches together) with contemporary methods (digital printing and video). Installations have been constructed in forest preserves as well as galleries. Other works comment on the existential relationship between humans and nature, and the sensation of revelation or of being lost, venturing into the unknown. Still other works make reference to deforestation and the loss of natural habitat, or the devastation caused by climate change.

John Day graduated from Cornell University in 1967 with a BFA in fine arts, where he studied with Jim Dine and Robert Richenburg, who had a decisive influence on his artistic development. Following Peace Corps service in the Philippines, he lived in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Connecticut and began observing the landscape, which led to the development of paintings based on farmland and forest settings. In Connecticut, he traveled to state parks and began producing sculptures and installations with natural materials gathered from forests and farmland. His first large scale installation, Grove Circle, was completed near a forest trail in 1980.  In 1984, two room-sized installations, Metacomet Voices and Corn Scaffold, were exhibited at the Old State House Museum in Hartford.

After moving to New York City in 1986, he continued work on a series of paintings based on travels to wilderness preserves in the Northeast. These paintings are medium to large scale, are primarily abstract, and have been exhibited in the New York area. He also has done large and small scale installations in forest preserves and galleries in New York, with materials gathered from the area. In 2000, he completed a large-scale temporary installation, Grove Spiral, for Muttontown Nature Preserve on Long Island. In 2004, he completed an installation, Landmarks, in Leeds Pond Preserve, Port Washington. In 2007, he exhibited Symbiosis, an installation made of branches and vines at the College of New Rochelle. Other recent installations include Heliotrope at SUNY Old Westbury, Portal at the Dumbo Arts Festival in Brooklyn, Reliquary at the Great Neck Arts Center, Thicket at the Steinberg Museum, LIU Post, NY, and Helix at the Glenwood Gallery, Glenwood Landing, NY. His work also includes wall-based mixed media assemblages and large scale drawings that are engaged with wilderness experience. Reviews of his exhibits have been published in The Hartford Courant, Art New England, The Middletown Press (CT), The New York Times, and The Artists Forum (online).