Purities & Absurdities
MENOKIN ARTSCAPE IS OUR FIRST EVER OUTDOOR ART EXHIBIT, WITH THIS YEAR’S THEME BEING SELF-EMANCIPATION, TO COMMEMORATE AMERICA’S 250TH.
AS VISITORS EXPLORE MENOKIN’S GROUNDS, THEY WILL SEE 3 ART INSTALLATIONS COMMENTING ON THE 250TH, THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, AND WHAT FREEDOM MEANS TO THEM.
You may have seen a large white sculpture poking out from the field. This giant echinacea was created by John Latell and is now installed for Menokin Artscape 2026.
Statement from John: I hope the work serves as an expression of hope, urging us to critically explore form and formlessness, as well as that which may be preeminent in the nature of mind. A way of honoring the precarious beauty of balance in nature and delusion in the proliferation of human identity hubris. Also a dialogue and collaboration with the eclectic nature of myth, bias, preference and belief. The work intends to symbolize both freedom, bold determination and a reconciling of conditions.
Mediums: steel, paint, polycarbonate laminate
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John Latell grew up near Warrenton, VA and lived and worked in Richmond and Pittsburgh. He’s produced large scale public sculpture both sanctioned for posterity and large works placed carefully in neglected industrial sites. Public art, solo gallery shows, group exhibitions and private, personal work generated much through the lens of metal sculpture though paint, photography, printmaking, wood, concrete and stone also. For over 20 years he’s called the Northern Neck home.
The primacy of form, the nature of mind, loosely held associations, fluid inquiry and eclectic interests are some of which are expressed well in the work of Luiz Zerbini, Anselm Kiefer and Maurizzio Cattelan encapsulated in myriad form of nature and history.
“I would like to abide with my personal work and share it through exhibition. Thank you for your time and may violence and struggle forever be supplanted by sanity, wisdom and grace.”
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