Sea of Ice, Ocean of Sand Part 1: Solitude, Seers, and Painting the Inside - June 22, 2025

Part 1: Solitude, Seers, and Painting the Inside with Tony de los Reyes and Brendan Constantine “The Sublime incites a marvelous set of crises in the minds of artists. It puts them at the axis of three coexisting temporalities: deep time, sovereign time, and individual time. As viewers, we are immersed in immediate, sensual stimuli, offered as an opportunity for a private oblivion.” –Tony de los Reyes “where is / the human place / in geological time?” –Forrest Gander, Mojave Ghost This two-part series with artist Tony de los Reyes and poets Brendan Constantine and Forrest Gander will explore the unstable, hidden elements within the sublime, what they meant to artists and poets in the 19th century, and how they continue to assert power not only in the arts but in politics as well. This series is inspired by the exhibition "Sea of Ice: Echoes of the European Romantic Era" on view through August 24. Tony de los Reyes’ work stems from his site-specific responses to regions along the US-Mexico border. By combining the seemingly disparate languages of abstraction and documentation, his work constructs metaphors for the border’s complexity and shifting reality. His current paintings, works on paper, and new sound sculpture/installations focus on the terrain between Mexicali, MX, and Jacumba, CA. By focusing on discrete moments within the topography, he asks viewers to consider these borderlands as parallel ecological systems resting in deep time, oblivious to ongoing political rhetoric. Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in many standards, including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, and Poem a Day. His fifth collection, 'The Opposites Game', is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. He currently teaches at the Windward School and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Forrest Gander's book, Be With, was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Concerned with the way we are revised and translated in encounters with the foreign, his book "Core Samples from the World" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gander has collaborated frequently with other artists, including photographers Sally Mann, Graciela Iturbide, Raymond Meeks, and Lucas Foglia, glass artist Michael Rogers, ceramic artists Rick Hirsch and Ashwini Bhat, artists Ann Hamilton, Tjibbe Hooghiemstra, dancers Eiko & Koma, and musicians Vic Chesnutt and Brady Earnhart, among others. Parallel Stories is a literary and performing arts series that pairs art and artists with award-winning authors and performers of regional, national, and international acclaim. This series functions as a multidisciplinary lens through which to view the Museum's collection and special exhibitions. -------------------------------- CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- https://www.sbma.net Facebook -   / sbmuseart   Instagram -   / sbmuseart   TikTok -   / sbmuseart