1001 South Tamiami Trail Sarasota
FL 34236
“The Truth of the Night Sky: A Hermitage Collaboration”
featuring Hermitage Fellows Anne Patterson and Patrick Harlin
Presented in partnership with Sarasota Art Museum
Sunday April 21 to Sunday September 29
Sarasota Art Museum (entrance at 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236)
Click here for more information.
The Truth of the Night Sky, a Hermitage collaboration, is the second exhibition of Hermitage alumni premiering at Sarasota Art Museum this spring – opening on April 21, 2024 and remaining on display through September 29, 2024. After meeting while in residence at the Hermitage Artist Retreat ten years ago and building on their friendship and collaboration, multidisciplinary visual artist Anne Patterson and composer / soundscape artist Patrick Harlin have joined forces to develop this one-of-a-kind immersive experience. Patterson, who is familiar to Sarasota audiences from previous exhibitions at The Ringling Museum and whose “Divine Pathways” is currently represented in New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, is widely celebrated for her grand environments that immerse the viewer and surround the senses. A distinguished Hermitage alumna with an impressive background in immersive exhibitions and theatrical design, Anne Patterson has frequently collaborated with musicians, including fellow Hermitage alum Patrick Harlin, to design mesmerizing environments. For this collaborative project, Patterson and Harlin are expanding upon Harlin’s original composition Earthrise (2022), an orchestral piece inspired by the eponymous photograph (1968) taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders on humanity’s first-ever trip around the moon. The original composition by Patrick Harlin, who was also the very first recipient of the Hermitage Prize in Composition at the Aspen Music Festival, will play as visitors pass through the galleries. The exhibition will feature several works by Patterson, as well as a suspended tree and her signature satin ribbon installation work. With each step, visitors will travel imaginatively through space and time. Of their time at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Patterson and Harlin are fond of saying that their experience was invaluable to their craft and their collaboration, allowing them to achieve new heights, find a unique environmental inspiration, and explore new possibilities in their work.
Hermitage alumna Anne Patterson is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. She recently served as a juror for the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize. Her body of work consists of paintings, sculptures, and large-scale multimedia installations that combine sculpture, architecture, lighting, video, music, and scent. Drawing from her background in theater and opera set design, she uses these modalities to create an artistic practice, hovering somewhere between the visual, experiential and immersive. Patterson’s large-scale installations have filled cathedrals, office buildings, and galleries across the country with miles of fabric, aluminum ribbon, and metal birds. Her most recent installation, “Divine Pathways” was created in concert with communities and organizations across the Morningside Heights neighborhood in New York City and is now on display at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. “Ascendant Light,” commissioned by Capital One as the centerpiece of their new corporate headquarters, is made of hundreds of hand plotted ribbons over six stories. Other recent commissions include “Art for Earth,” commissioned by the fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna, was made of thousands of lengths of fabric repurposed from Zegna fabrics. Anne has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at The Ringling Museum and Alfstad & Contemporary. Her work has been shown at The Trapholt Museum, Denmark; Cristina Grajales, New York; Scope Art Fair, Miami; Aqua Art Fair, Miami; Building Bridges Art Exchange, Los Angeles; Valerie Dillon Gallery, New York; Denise Bibro, New York; Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence, RI and One Twelve Gallery, Atlanta. Her paintings and sculptures are in private, public, and corporate collections across the USA (Tishman Speyer, Tribune Media, Nortek, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Rhode Island Blue Cross) and in London. Anne’s theatrical and symphonic partnerships have included Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Arena Stage, The Wilma Theater, The Kennedy Center, Alliance Theater and prestigious symphonies throughout the country (San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle). Patterson was the 2014 and 2016 CODAaward Winner for Liturgical Art and received a Creative Capital Award in 2008. She is a proud Fellow of the Hermitage Artist’s Retreat. In Sarasota, her work has been exhibited at The Ringling Museum and commissioned by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Patterson received her B.A. of Architecture from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Theater Design from The Slade School of Art, London UK.
Hermitage Fellow Patrick Harlin’s “aesthetics capture a sense of tradition and innovation” (The New York Times). He is the inaugural recipient of the Hermitage Prize in Composition at the Aspen Music Festival, which offered a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Manasota Key, Florida. Harlin’s music is permeated by classical, jazz, and electronic music traditions, all underpinned with a love and respect for the great outdoors. His works have been performed on subscription series concerts by the St. Louis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, the Rochester and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, Collegium Cincinnati, and Calidore String Quartet, among others. CD recordings include Wilderness Anthology by the Kinetic Ensemble and American Rapture on the Grammy-nominated album by the Rochester Philharmonic. Patrick was the inaugural composer in residence with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra (2019-2023.) To date, he is the only artist-recipient of a DOW Sustainability Fellowship. While at the Hermitage, Harlin met visual artist Anne Patterson, and they have been collaborating since, including the work The Art of Flight with Anne’s art installation “Murmuration.” Patrick’s interdisciplinary research in soundscape ecology — a field that aims to better understand ecosystems through sound — has taken him to imperiled regions around the world, including the Amazon rainforest and the Book Cliffs of Utah. His baseline recordings for ecological impact studies are also the fodder for artistic inspiration. Patrick’s research on the importance of soundscapes has been supported by a Graham Sustainability Institute Doctoral Fellowship, Rackham Fellowship, Theodore Presser Award, and private support. The resulting works, the Wilderness Anthology draw parallels between the sounds of the natural world and those of the concert hall, seeking to bring awareness to the importance of sound in our environment. Patrick grew up in Seattle, holds a doctorate in music composition from the University of Michigan, and currently resides in Ann Arbor.