Events at Studio Delson

We regularly host art exhibitions and talks in our Dumbo studio, forging a platform for artists and thinkers with conversations that expand our understanding of the community beyond our walls. We often include these artistic collaborations in our projects. Our programs reinforce and enhance our own creative practice.

See our upcoming exhibition: Rachel Bacon

Upcoming Events

Rachel Bacon

AfterMined

Exhibition on view by appointment:
22 September – 6 November 2026

Opening Reception:
22 September 6:00PM – 8:30PM
RSVP required.

RSVP

Artist Talk:
4 November 2026
6:00PM reception. Artist talk begins promptly at 6:30PM.

Art in DUMBO First Thursday
5 November 6:00 – 8:00PM

“My work has its starting point in an exploration of coal mining landscapes, and the parallels between the act of drawing and excavation. Grids, crumples and shapes reminiscent of both the body and the earth form motifs for small and large scale semi sculptural graphite drawings. Since 2022 I have been researching the Eastern Pennsylvania anthracite country, together with Meredith Davenport. I have been drawn to the area for its beauty, and because it combines so many layers that relate to the complexities of our current time of climate breakdown. My work explores some of the temporal layers found at these sites, combining aspects of geology, surface damage and visual references to underground veins and tunnels that speak of immanent collapse. Graphite drawings on damaged paper reference fissures and shafts all in a state of imbalance. Based on images of old coal mines, the slab-like graphite drawings contain horizontal and vertical elements, resting on the floor and hanging askew, as fragments of material belonging to an underground space that is shifting and destabilized. The works explore the way post-industrial regions show traces of enmeshment between natural and human systems, creating a form of hybrid landscape, where human and other than human systems can no longer be untangled. My research has drawn on archival photography, fossil collection, remediation efforts and the collection of iron oxide pigment found in waterways polluted with acid mine drainage. Many of the works in the exhibition at Studio Delson were shown at the duo exhibition Hybrid Zones (with Meredith Davenport) held in 2025/6 at HUB Robeson Gallery at Penn State University, along with other more recent works.”

@rachelbacon9313

rachelbacon.com

Artist Statement:

Currently I’m exploring how drawing can work within larger issues concerning landscape, geology, extraction industries and the aesthetics of the climate emergency. Site visits to open-pit mining areas and research into the effects of climate warming form the starting point for painstaking, semi-sculptural drawings. I draw with graphite on crumpled paper; normally considered a mistake and thrown away, the damage to the paper is revealed and made valuable through careful mark-making. The crumpled paper of the drawing may resemble both aging skin patterns and the lands’ erosion, inviting a further association between bodies and earth. In contrast to the relentlessly efficient economic speed of mining enterprises, my work often takes a disproportionate amount of time to produce. Every tear, fold or crumple becomes part of the composition. In the drawings, raw material (graphite) is replaced on the damaged surface, in a form of “reverse excavation”. I see the undrawn part of the paper as a seam, comparable to a vein of coal or ore. Not a natural resource to be depleted, the blank paper instead becomes a space of potential, suggesting that value lies within imaginative potential, as opposed to the finite depletion associated with excavation practices. I understand drawing as an expanded process, something that happens not just in the studio but across a wide spectrum of mark-making and lines in the landscape. I consider drawing not just as an artistic medium, but as a way of understanding how we leave traces throughout our lives. This in turn opens up the potential to re-draw, undraw or draw together a different kind of future.

About the Artist:
I’m a visual artist and drawing tutor in the Fine Arts department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, The Netherlands. Originally from New York City, I’m now based in Brussels. I completed a MA Drawing in 2016 at the University of the Arts London, and Master Artistic Research at St Lucas in Antwerp in 2021. In my practice I explore how drawing can work within larger issues concerning landscape, geology, extraction industries and the aesthetics of the climate emergency. Site visits to open-pit mining areas and research into the effects of climate warming form the starting point for painstaking, semi-sculptural drawings. Frequently made on crumpled paper with graphite, the marks and surface are completely interdependent. I often participate in artist residencies: RAVI (2026), Ucross (2025), Monson Arts (2025), Drawing Center Diepenheim (2022), Frans Masereel Centre (2022), Banff Centre for the Arts (2017), and Studios at MASS MoCA (2017). Exhibitions include: Dismantling the Anthropocene (RADIUS Center for Contemporary Art and Ecology, Delft, NL, 2026), Hybrid Zones (HUB Robeson Gallery, Penn State University, 2025/6), Overburden (Greylight Projects, Heerlen, NL, 2024), Deep Drawing (Diepenheim Drawing Center, 2023), Troubled Waters (Pictura Dordrecht, 2022), What Do Landscapes Say? (Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam and Na Peschanoy Gallery, Moscow, 2021) and How the Land Lies (Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Ireland, 2020). I’ve received grants from Stroom Den Haag, the Mondriaan Fund and the Puffin Foundation, and presented my research and work at the Drawing Research Forum, at Drawing Room, London, at the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University as part of the Ecologies of Drawing program and at Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts, Lancaster, UK.