Contemporary artist Mark Dion will lead a tour through the exhibition Eugen Gabritschevsky: Theater of the Imperceptible, discussing the parallels between their work and the intersection of art and science. Dion will also discuss the current exhibition he cocurated, Exploratory Works: Drawings from the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions, on view at The Drawing Center through July 16, 2017.

A Critical Walk-Through is a 40-minute guided tour that is meant to offer an alternative perspective to the works on view. They include conversations with artists, scholars, and curators, and provide an intimate opportunity to engage with the central themes and histories found in the artwork. The program is limited to 20 individuals.

Since the early 1990s, Mark Dion has examined the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, the artist creates works that address distinctions between objective scientific methods and subjective influences. By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Dion questions the authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society.

Throughout the past two decades, his work has been the subject of major exhibitions worldwide. Notable solo exhibitions include Mark Dion: The Academy of Things at the Academy of Fine Arts Design in Dresden, Germany (2014); The Macabre Treasury at Museum Het Domein in Sittard, The Netherlands (2013); Oceanomania: Souvenirs of Mysterious Seas at Musée Océanographique de Monaco and Nouveau Musée National de Monaco/Villa Paloma in Monaco (2011); The Marvelous Museum: A Mark Dion Project at Oakland Museum of California (2010–2011); Systema Metropolis at Natural History Museum, London (2007); The South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit at Miami Art Museum (2006); Rescue Archaeology, a project for the Museum of Modern Art (2004); and his renowned Tate Thames Dig at the Tate Gallery in London (1999). In 2012, his work was included in dOCUMENTA 13, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in Kassel, Germany, and has also been exhibited at MoMA PS1 in New York, Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen, Germany, and Kunsthaus Graz in Austria. His work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Hamburger Kunsthalle in Germany, Harvard University Art Museums, and the Israel Museum of Art in Jerusalem, among others. Presently, he is a mentor at Columbia University and co-director of Mildred’s Land, an innovative visual art education and residency program in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania.

Photo by Jorge Colombo.