The Ark

A sweeping group exhibition composed entirely of animal sculptures, curated by artist Eric Fischl with PHA President Eric Shiner, The Ark was first exhibited in 2025 at The Church Sag Harbor and brings together a multigenerational group of artists presenting 89 works. This expanded iteration features additional sculptures curated by Shiner. Opening in summer 2026 in Gowanus, Brooklyn, it also marks Powerhouse Arts’ first major public exhibition and inaugurates a new year-round exhibitions program led by Shiner, Vice President of Curatorial and Arts Programs Liz Munsell, and Associate Curator Constanza Valenzuela.

The Ark refers directly to the myth of the Deluge, an event of mythic scale that becomes a metaphor for the present moment, where environmental and social upheaval converge. Throughout the exhibition, animals function as both protagonists and interlocutors. Experienced in the round, in close proximity and often in monumental scale, the sculptures foster a sense of connection and wonder channeled through artists’ eyes and keen powers of observation.  Rather than approaching environmental themes through urgency alone, the exhibition centers on relationships—the instinctive human tendency to care for vulnerable beings and to acknowledge their unique contributions to our collective life on this planet. From this place of recognition, the desire to preserve, respect, and protect emerges naturally from intimate encounters.
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“[These sculptures] capture an animal’s inherent beauty, a physical manifestation of instinct and survival. There are also sculptures of animals that personify truths within human life that are best approached indirectly because they are rooted in the sublime: wordless wonder and terror.” – Eric Fischl

The menagerie assembled in The Ark bears witness to forces that threaten our existence while illuminating what remains most worth preserving. 

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“These works speak to both the precarity and possibility of our moment. Presented at Powerhouse Arts, they inhabit a space of refuge and inquiry, where making becomes a form of stewardship, of survival. Through the language of materials and the hand of the artist, these sculptures invite us to recognize the urgency of preserving our environments while reconsidering our role within them. We are one species among many, bound to a shared and vulnerable ecosystem we must unite to protect and appreciate every day.” – Eric Shiner

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Originally conceived within the coastal context of Sag Harbor, a historical whaling town, The Ark takes on new resonance in Brooklyn on the Gowanus Canal. Situated in the former Batcave on a Superfund site, Gowanus is shaped by its history of environmental destruction, postindustrial transformation, and contemporary reinvention. This iteration of the exhibition foregrounds questions of environmental stewardship, urban ecosystems, and the evolving relationship between human and nonhuman life within dense metropolitan settings.

At Powerhouse Arts, these themes are further amplified through the institution’s role as a refuge for creative vision and its varied manifestations. An artist-curated exhibition, The Ark reflects a range of materiality, technique, and artistic gesture, foregrounding process and the labor of artistic production central to the organization’s mission. This emphasis resonates with PHA’s identity as a center for fabrication, of material exploration and technical innovation, where the sculptural object becomes evidence of often-invisible acts of making that better connect us to our world.

Featured artists from the original exhibition include: Joan Brown, Maurizio Cattelan, Jim Dine, Raven Halfmoon, William Kentridge, Sherrie Levine, Sarah Lucas, Allan McCollum, Bruce Nauman, Charles Ray, Susan Rothenberg, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Kiki Smith, Rosemarie Trockel, among others.

Newly featured artists in the Powerhouse Arts presentation will include: François-Xavier Lalanne, Canuppa Hanska Luger, Wangechi Mutu, Nohemí Pérez, Rob Pruitt, Toshio Sasaki, Nari Ward, Celia Vásquez Yui, among others. 

The full exhibition catalog and programming will be announced in the coming weeks.

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[Image: Installation of The Ark at The Church, Sag Harbor. Photos by Joe Jagos.]