Bio: Jody Guralnick (1953), lives and works in Aspen, Colorado. Her practice operates at the vital intersection of contemporary art, ecological taxonomy, and citizen science. She focuses intensely on the intricate, symbiotic structural systems of the “Fifth Kingdom”—mosses, lichens, molds, and the branching hyphal threads of fungal mycelium. As muses go, yeast, mold, mushrooms, and lichen have a lot to offer. When fungus grows, it casts these lacy mycelial threads. It’s so baroque and over the top. Her language is deeply informed by immersion in environmental observation.
Title of work: The Gossip of Grasses
Where to see it: Nancy Hoffman Gallery, 520 W 27th St., New York, NY 10001
Three words to describe this work: Alive, observe, immerse
What was on your mind at the time: I was thinking about grasses, often overlooked, and I started researching grass pollens, immensely complex and yet taking the form of so much else in the world, rods and spiked balls that we see at every level, from microscopic to macroscopic. It struck me that this pollen is a universal truth, a building block of the world. This form exists in our gut and is floating about us all the time. I love the whisper of all that is unseen in and around us, I like to know and show it to you. The more you learn the more you see, the more you care.
