Catalogues and Exhibition Texts — click thumbnails to read

Anaïs Duplan, Hope Ginsburg, Melody Jue, Jennifer Lange

Meditation Ocean (gallery guide)

Wexner Center for the Arts, 2023

Sarah Howard

"Sponge Exchange, Hope Ginsburg" (exhibition text)

University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, 2020

Denise Markonish
"Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder" (excerpt from catalog essay)
MASS MoCA, 2016
pp. 50–51

Jennifer Lange
"Land Dive Team: Bay of Fundy" (exhibition text)
THE BOX, Wexner Center for the Arts, 2016

Sarah Demeuse
"Weather Permitting" (catalog entry)
9th Mercosul Biennial, 2013
pp. 308–311

Regine Basha
"Hope Ginsburg" (catalog essay)
CUE Art Foundation, 2011
pp. 6–7

Emily Sessions
"Hope Ginsburg" (catalog essay)
CUE Art Foundation, 2011
pp. 21–25

Jennifer Kollar
"Factory Direct: New Haven" (catalog entry)
Artspace, 2005

Helen Molesworth
"Work Ethic" (catalog entry)
Baltimore Museum of Art, 2003
pp. 147–148

Larissa Harris
"Heart of Gold" (excerpt from catalog essay)
PS1, 2002
pp. 3–5

Omer Fast
"Fido Television" (excerpt from catalog essay)
Hunter College Times Square Art Gallery, 2000

Articles and Reviews — click thumbnails to read

Annie Dell'Aria

"Deep Breathing: Annie Dell'Aria on Meditation Ocean"

Artforum, May 2023

Pablo Helguera

"Reading Assignments: Books that artists study, reference, and base works on."

Beautiful Eccentrics

August 18, 2022

Lynn Trimble

"New Generation of Land Artists Embodies a Call for Action"

Hyperallergic

July 14, 2022


Jennifer Lange

Film/Video Studio Journals: Hope Ginsburg

In Practice, Wexner Center for the Arts

Fall 2021

Emma Colón
"5 Artists Bridging Communities Across Difference"
A Blade of Grass Magazine
March 28, 2019

Leila Ugincius
"Optimistic and Tragic: A Glimpse of Coral Restoration"
VCU News
March 26, 2019

Sydney Cologie and Brynne McGregor
"Wex Moments 2018: Film/Video Studio artist Hope Ginsburg" (Q&A)
Wexner Center for the Arts
December 26, 2018

Tim Dodson
"Performative Diving Piece Featured at Festival Honoring the James River"
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 9, 2018

Karen Newton
"Deep Dive: Artist Hope Ginsburg Becomes One with the Sea"
Style Weekly, June 2018

Jessica Lynne
"From Climate Change to Race Relations, Artists Respond to Richmond, VA" (review)
Hyperallergic, 2015

Lauren O'Neill-Butler
"Hope Ginsburg CUE Art Foundation" (review)
Artforum, Summer 2011

Gary Robertson

"Art Students Find Inspiration in the Lab"

VCU News Center, 2010

T.J. Demos
"Work Ethic" (review)
Artforum, February 2004

Books — click thumbnails to read

Sarah Urist Green

"You Are An Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation"

Penguin Books, 2020

pp. 239–232

Corina L. Apostol and Nato Thompson, Editors

"Making Another World Possible: 10 Creative Time Summits, 10 Global Issues, 100 Art Projects"

Routledge, 2020

pp. 277–278

Akiko Busch

"How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency"

Penguin Books, 2019

pp. 199–200

Educational Materials — click thumbnails to read

Amanda Tobin Ripley and Julia Harth

Winter / Spring 2023 Learning Guide

Wexner Center for the Arts, 2023

Videos — click thumbnails to view

VCUarts Lecture Series: Hope Ginsburg

Institute for Contemporary Art

Richmond, VA 

October 3, 2023

Land Dive Team: Amphibious James

Television Program is a Production of VPM

Producer/Director: Mason Mills

Producer/Field Director: Allison Benedict

September 22, 2019

Conjure a Studio – Hope Ginsburg
The Art Assignment
PBS Digital Studios, 2016

The Art of Pedagogy – Hope Ginsburg

Creative Time Summit

Venice Biennale, 2015

Art and Education in the 21st Century
Panelists: John Brown-Executive Director, Windgate Foundation; Tom Finkelpearl-Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; Hope Ginsburg-Artist and Educator; Moderator: Geoffrey Cowan- President, The Annenberg Foundation Trust
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 2014

From Climate Change to Race Relations, Artists Respond to Richmond, VA


"New Dominion" a group show at Mixed Greens, brings together the work of eight artists living and working in Richmond, Virginia. In a cultural moment where it seems as if the state of affairs of the American South has been on everyone’s mind, the show draws a timely focus on the former Confederate capital while still managing to respond, in part, to social dynamics that affect us no matter what region of the world we call home.


Indeed, the former Confederacy is a very far cry from utopia. This fact is especially difficult to ignore when the Confederate flag still decorates license plates, living rooms, and the occasional statehouse. Though many Confederate apologists cry “heritage, not hate” as justification for the continued visibility of the flag in public (southern) spaces, the absurdity of that claim is confronted in Sonya Clark’s “Unraveling” (2015) and “Unraveled” (2015). The artist has manually unraveled a Confederate flag — not unlike the many that I have seen proudly displayed in Richmond — as if to say that the work of dismantling white supremacy is laborious, a physical effort.


Still, explicit nods to Richmond’s actual history are minimal. In her curatorial statement, Lauren Ross emphasizes “rebirth and forward-looking change” for Richmond while also examining the ways in which one’s relationship to a place can be informed by wider cultural and political realities such as climate change and race. Or, conversely, the ways in which individual actions — the proud waving of a rebel flag or one’s material consumption habits, for instance — might affect the culture of a place. What would it mean for no more Confederate flags to fly in the former confederate capital? The South? What does the state of a local biological habitat say about a community’s commitment to the environment?


Such an interrogation is made stronger with works by Hope Ginsburg and Susie Ganch. In her single-channel video “Land Dive Team: Rice River Center Wetlands” (2015), Ginsburg and two companions meditate on land, in full scuba gear. The meditation takes place at Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Rice Rivers Center located outside of Richmond, an ecological site that has been harmed due to chemical waste. Part of the artist’s Breathing on Land series, the video reckons with and calls attention to the relationship between physical health and the health of the environment in the Richmond area but also asks viewers to consider what restoration and healing could look like in the wake of environmental catastrophe. Ganch’s structurally astounding “Triangle Trade” (2015) comprised of discarded coffee cup tops sourced from cafes in Richmond reflects the ruminations of an artist meditating on the relationship between the environment and collective consumption.


Interdisciplinary media artist John D. Freyer also thinks about interpersonal relationships. Freyer’s “Free Ice Water” (2015) is an ongoing seven-step participatory art project that invites gallery-goers to partake in one-on-one conversations during visits. Before beginning, participants are instructed to fill a mason jar (provided by the artist) to the brim with ice water (also provided by the artist). Upon conclusion of the conversation, both parties take a drink from the jar, refill it, and then seal the jar which is then displayed on a shelf in the gallery. Originally conceived as a method to discuss the often taboo subjects of addiction, mental health, and recovery, the project uses relational aesthetics as a means of centering human relationships. Within the context of this show, participants are encouraged per Freyer’s instruction booklet, to “have a real conversation” on any topic in order to generate intimate, vulnerable moments of introspection.


However, other works featured in New Dominion are not explicitly political in this manner and though intriguing, the architectural paintings of Richard Roth and handmade paper diptych by Ben Durham seem disconnected from the curatorial framework. Sand castle salt forms by Noa Glazer are easily forgettable and the visually striking “POLITICAL CONSTRUCT #1 & #2” (2014), a steel sculpture by Arnold Kemp, is woefully tucked away in a corner of the gallery’s north corridor — a decision that left me quite perplexed.


Without becoming dogmatic, New Dominion is a show that posits that our individual lives and the communities in which we live can be extremely connected, informed by policy but also the aggregated consequences of daily habits. That it is not heavy-handed in this assertion is a reason to commend Ross. Yet, in other ways, its full potential is only half-realized with a few works emerging as clear standouts and others towing the line between artistic placeholders and thematic outliers.

Jessica Lynne
"From Climate Change to Race Relations, Artists Respond to Richmond, VA" (review)
Hyperallergic, 2015