Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi

Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale is pleased to announce its latest exhibition, Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi on view in the Derfner Judaica Museum and grounds from July 15–November 18, 2018. A reception and artist’s talk will be held on Sunday, October 7, 2018, from 1:30–3 p.m. in the Museum, located at 5901 Palisade Avenue in the Riverdale section of The Bronx. This event is free and open to the public. R.S.V.P. 718.581.1596 or art@hebrewhome.org. Photo I.D. required for entry at all times.

In this exhibition featuring an outdoor sculpture, installation work, and related maquettes and drawings, Leonard Ursachi addresses themes of environmental and social crises caused by manmade events and reflects on how the destruction of natural resources is intimately interconnected with the effacement of human history and culture.

Central to the show will be a new outdoor sculpture created for the exhibition—an iteration of Ursachi’s What a Wonderful World series. The large-scale work is on view in the sculpture garden on the Hebrew Home’s majestic 32-acre property overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. Carved in Styrofoam and covered in Styrocrete, pigments, non-toxic tar paint and 23-karat gold leaf, What a Wonderful World (2018) touches on the inextricable link between profitability and the destruction of the environment. The expanses of 23-karat gold leaf applied to the roughly textured, “tarred” oceans reference a global, often wealth-driven disregard for the impact of environmental choices. The continents, on the other hand, appear vast and devoid of life, signifying a stripping away of natural resources. Still, Ursachi’s vision implies hope: the sculpture’s egg shape may be read as the enduring, if fragile, potential for life. Inside the Museum will be a complementary display of drawings as well as maquettes in a variety of materials, including 23-karat gold, cast urethane resin, Styrofoam, concrete, cast aluminum and marble.