Exhibitions and Commissions
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Nocturne of the Limax Maximus
Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 2010
Inspired by the dance of hermaphroditic slugs in the forest at night, two electrically lit plantings encased in curvy plastic pods were cared for in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art as folks passed through.
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Canoes
Canoes, 2016, Seagram Building, NYC, powder coated aluminum, stainless steel, live planting, lighting
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Paula Hayes/Solo Exhibition
Wexner Center For the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 2011
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Paula Hayes/Solo Exhibition
Wexner Center For the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 2011
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Land Mind
Lever House, NYC, 2012,
Cast acrylic, salt water aquarium with tropical fish and plants, filtration system. silicone planters tropical planting, recycled rubber flooring
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Land Mind
Lever House, NYC, 2012
Cast acrylic, salt water aquarium with tropical fish and plants, filtration system. silicone planters tropical planting, recycled rubber flooring
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Trees For ETs
Art Omi, The Fields, Ghent, NY, 2008-2013
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Gazing Globes
Madison Square Park, NYC, 2012, Polycarbonate, silicone, fiberglass, radio transistor parts, glitter
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Gazing Globes
Madison Square Park, NYC, 2012, Polycarbonate, silicone, fiberglass, radio transistor parts, glitter
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Gazing Globes
Madison Square Park, NYC, 2012, Polycarbonate, silicone, fiberglass, radio transistor parts, glitter
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Understory
Tang Museum, 2010, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
A series of ten dinners and talks in the museum, set amongst living art works cared by Skidmore students over the course of 10 months.
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Understory
Tang Museum, 2010, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
A series of ten dinners and talks in the museum, set amongst living art works cared by Skidmore students over the course of 10 months.
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Understory
Tang Museum, 2010, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
A series of ten dinners and talks in the museum, set amongst living art works cared by Skidmore students over the course of 10 months.
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Understory
Tang Museum, 2010, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
A series of ten dinners and talks in the museum, set amongst living art works cared by Skidmore students over the course of 10 months.
Selected Artworks
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Trapeze Chandeliers
Cast Acrylic, stainless steel, wiring
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SIlicone Planters
Cast silicone planters
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Plastigiveness Project
Plastic, aluminum, acrylic
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Birdbath
Cast acrylic
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Crystal Terrarium
Hand blown glass, substrate, crystals
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Small Classic Painted Fiberglass Planter
2025, painted cast fiberglass
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Hills and Clouds
Handblown glass terrariums on cut rubber flooring
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Lucid Green
Artist book in wall mounted cast acrylic case published by Carolina Nitsch
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Gnomes
Cast Aluminum and Bronze
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Gnome 4
Painted cast aluminum in moss planting
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Gnome
Cast Bronze
Selected Landscapes
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Klein Landscape
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Klein Landscape
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Klein Landscape
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Klein Landscape
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Elizabeth Rosen Landscape
Hamptons Landscape
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Elizabeth Rosen Landscape
Hamptons Landscape
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Elizabeth Rosen Landscape
Hamptons Landscape
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Tribeca Rooftop Garden
Native plantings, cast acrylic sculptural planter
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Tribeca Rooftop Garden
Native planting, recycled rubber materials, cast acrylic sculptural planter, cast silicone planters, driftwood fence
Selected Writing
Plastigiveness, 2025
I wonder, do we secretly love plastic? The way we use it, we act as if it's perfect. Plastic is dependable, often strong, and so smooth. Sunlight frequently passes through it, bestowing radiant and gleaming effects. From miniature containers to massive vessels, plastic reliably encases, wraps, or nets our food, Plastic promises solutions for life with ease and comfort—in many ways it emerges as a cherished material, despite the simultaneous repulsion we say we feel for it. I don't have to rummage around in the statistics about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch to disrupt any mysterious comfort feelings plastic might produce. The very suggestion we are in love with plastic is cringe-inducing and sufficient to illustrate how complex our relationship is with our plastic addiction. In his 1957 work Mythologies, Roland Barthes described plastic as "an essentially alchemical substance." The seemingly boundless utility of plastic carried with it a Utopian mid-twentieth-century promise, suggesting it could offer blissful freedom. Confronting our denial about plastic starts, I believe, by recognizing how captivated we are by it not only as a material but also by the larger concept it represents: the notion of "throw-away"—though there is absolutely no away to throw it to. What if our fascination lies not just in the convenience of disposing of plastic, but in the symbolic act of discarding more than just the material itself. Could it be that we are, on a deep level, enamored with the existential idea of unburdening ourselves from parts of ourselves to the point of denying who we really are? We are creatures not only infused with microplastics, we are also filled with love-hate-relationships. We are conflicted about our phones and computers also, as we disembody ourselves through them. Imagine if the discordant relationship to plastic were to become accepted as intrinsically who we are. Could we also accept the discord as part of dynamic forces that animate us and perhaps profoundly connect us to the Earth? What if by embracing these elementally paradoxical aspects of ourselves, we began to fundamentally change how we approach the plastic catastrophe. Further, can we look at something so potentially shattering, through art, as a welcome and curious new aesthetic?
Connect
About
Collections
Lever House Colection
Museum of Modern Art
The Tang Museum
Michael and Sukey Novogratz
John and Mo Pritzker
Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn
Aby and Samantha Rosen
Sandy Rower
Fiona and Eric Rudin
Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld
Helen Schwab
Annabelle Selldorf
Ann Tenenbaum
David and Monica Zwirner
Selected Exhibitions and Landscapes
2024
Garden Fit on PBS, Season2, Episode 6, https://www.pbs.org/video/litt... Little Worlds With Big Ideas, March 2024
2019
NY1, July 1, 2019, “Meet a Brooklyn Artist Who Inspired a Terrarium Home Decor Trend”, Stephanie Simon, https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2019/07/01/manhattan-artist-inspires-indoor-gardens- Dwell, January 2018, “Earthly Delights”, Julie Lasky, pp 44-49
2018
Vogue Mexico, August 2018, “Living Creation”, Regina Montemayor, pp. 162-163
Cultured Magazine, June, July, August 2018, “Earthly Delights”, pg. 216
Cultured Magazine (on-line), July 20, 2018, “Artist Paula Hayes’ Cultured Commission is for the birds”, Sarah Roffino, https://www.culturedmag.com/paula-hayes-2
Landscape Architecture Magazine, June 2018, “Reviving ‘Baltimore’s Front Porch’”, Kim O’Connel, pp. 19-20
Aspen Daily News (in print and on-line), May 24, 2018, “The Aspen Art Museum welcomes birds and a mini-meadow”, Mitzi Rapkin, pg. 7
Artsy (on-line), April 20, 2018, “Terrariums Let Anyone Create a “Perfect World” in Their Own Apartment”, Kate Groetzinger, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-terrariums-create-perfect-world-apartment
Art Forum (on-line), February 21, 2018, “Paula Hayes named the Baltimore Museum of Art's First Landscape Artist in Residence”, https://www.artforum.com/news/paula-hayes-named-the-baltimore-museum-of-art-s-first-landscape-artist-in-residence-743892015
Wall Street Journal (in print and on-line), February 16, 2015, “An Enchanted Global Invasion”, Ralph Gardner, pg. A14
T Magazine Blog, February 18, 2015, “Paula Hayes Reimagines a Victorian Totem in Madison Square Park”, Julie Baumgardner
Cultured Magazine, February-March 2015, “Globe Trotter”, Julie Baumgardner, pp. 134-135
Architectural Digest (on-line), Daily AD, February 19, 2015, “Two Paula Hayes exhibitions open in Manhattan “ Hannah Martin2013
Frame Magazine, May-June 2013, “Nature’s Networker”, Jane Szita, pp. 82 - 91
ARTnews, March 2013, “Growing Power,” Hilarie M. Sheets, pp. 76 - 81
2012
Art in America, October 7, 2012, “Paula Hayes Glenn Horowitz Bookseller,” Matthew Nichols
Interior Design Magazine, January 2012, “Absolutely Breathtaking,” Meghan Edwards, p. 171
Home Review Magazine of India (in print and on-line), February 2012, “Petite Forests,” Mala Bajaj, pp. 127 - 132 http://www.home-review.com/2012/02/petite-forests/...
Garden Design Magazine (in print and on-line), April 2012, “Paula Hayes at Lever House,” Katie Mendelson http://www.gardendesign.com/paula-hayes-at-lever-h...
2011
CBS Sunday Morning, January 16, 2011, “The Growing Trend of Terrariums,” Serena Altschul, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7251965n&ta...
D Pages (on-line), November 1 2011, http://www.thedpages.com/november-2011#!__november...
Art Threat (on-line), November 1, 2011, “Engaged devotion and care “ Amanda McCuaig, http://artthreat.net/2011/11/engaged-devotion-and-...
NY Observer, (on-line and in print), November 3, 2011 (online), “House and Garden: Paula Hayes Brings the Tropics to Midtown”, Andrew Russeth and Sarah Douglas, (print version November 9, 2011), http://www.galleristny.com/2011/11/house-and-garde...
2010
New York Times, December 3, 2010, “Inside Art: Adding Green Space to MoMA with Tropical Terrariums,” Carol Vogel, Weekend Arts, C26
Artnet, November 18, 2010, “MoMA at its Very Best,” Charlie Finch, www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/on-line-a...
New York Times, May 13, 2010, “For The Table, Biomorphic Shapes,” Penelope Green, Home, D2
2009
New York Times, July 3, 2009, “Art in Review: Paula Hayes…,” Roberta Smith, C24
New York Times, June 11, 2009, “Love Alters the Landscape,” Penelope Green, Home and Garden, D1
New York Magazine, August 3, 2009, “Hiding From the High Line,” Wendy Goodman, pp. 38 - 39
Elle Decor, October 2009, “Clear Thinking,” Jim Shi, pp. 151 - 155
Interior Design, August 2009, “The Artist’s Eye,” Meghan Edwards, p. 134
Garden Design, July/August 2009, “Art: Living Jewel Box,” L. C., p. 19
Vogue Living Australia, July/August 2009, “Living Canvas,” Felicity Loughrey, pp. 191 - 194
New York Times, April 23, 2009, “Shopping with Ken Smith: An Unexpected Oasis,” Elaine Louie, Home and Garden, D4
Verde Es Vida, October 2009, “Paula Hayes,” pp. 20 - 23
Igloo Habitat & Arhitectura, November 2009, “Agenda” | Design,” p.22
2008
Avant Gardeners, Tim Richardson, Thames & Hudson, pp. 132 - 137 1000 x
Landscape Architecture, Sibylle Kramer, Verlagshaus Braun
New York Times Magazine, May 2008, “Green Anchors,” Melissa Feldman, p. 24
New York Magazine, June 2, 2008, “The Deli-Flower Challenge,” Kaija Helmetag, p. 48
The Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2008, “An inside job on terrariums,” Bettijane Levine
2007
Town & Country, April 2007, “Art For A Small Planet,” Carol Kino, p. 108
The New York Times, August 26, 2007, “Possessed: The Eye of the Beheld,” David Colman, p. 8
Dwell, September, 2007, “Terra Ephemera,” Amber Bravo, pp. 162 - 169
Architectural Record, #3 2007, “Janelia Farm Research Campus,” p. 117
The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 26, 2007, “Cool and Collected,” p. 89
2006
Insideout, November 2006, “A Tale of Three Cities. New York,” p. 115
House and Garden, December 2006, “Pushing The Envelope,” p. 76
Interior Design, August 2006, “News Desk,” p. 60
Wallpaper, September 2006, “Wallpaper’s Hot Picks of the Latest Global Goings-on,” p. 69
The Boston Globe, April 6, 2006, “Glass Houses,” Ellen C. Wells
Garden Design, March 2006, “Terrarium Tales,” Joanna Fortnam, pp. 11 - 12
Abbreviated Biography
Solo Exhibitions
2018
"Paula Hayes", Aspen Art Museum’s Crown Commons, Aspen, CO (June 1 to October 14, 2018)
2017
“Summer Garden”, rooftop project at Gagosian Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, CA (April to August, 2017)
2016
“Canoes”, permanent planted commission, Seagram Building, New York, NY
2015
“Morning Glory”, Salon 94 Bowery, New York, NY (February 20 to March 21, 2015)
“Gazing Globes”, Madison Square Park, New York, NY (February 19, 2015 to April 19th, 2015)
2014
“This Bird Saved Me”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL (September 12, 2014 to October 25, 2014)
“Paula Hayes”, OMI International Arts Center, Ghent, NY, September 26 to November 11, 2014
“Lucid Green”, Carolina Nitsch Project Room, New York, NY (April 25, 2014 to June 28, 2014)
2012
“Drawings and Objects,” Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, East Hampton, NY (June 30, 2012 to July 30, 2012)
“Hills, Clouds & Giants,” Salon 94, New York, NY (May 6, 2012 to June 1, 2012)
2011
“Land Mind,” Lever House, New York, NY (November 4, 2011 to April 27, 2012)
“Paula Hayes”, Wexner Art Center, Columbus, OH (September 16 to December 30, 2011)
2010
“Nocturne of the Limax maximus,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“Understory” The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
“Paula Hayes Domestic,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
2009
“Excerpts From The Story of Planet Thear,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
2008
“Paula Hayes”, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, Switzerland
2007
“Paula Hayes”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004
“Forest,” Salon 94, New York, NY
1998
“Paula Hayes”, Galerie fur Landschaftskunst, Hamburg, Germany
1997
“Paula Hayes”, AC Project Room, New York, NY
1995
“Paula Hayes”, Eigen + Art, Berlin, Germany
1994
Fawbush Gallery, New York, NY
1992
Fawbush Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
"Other Realities (Exploring Proximate Mysticisms), Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY- Justin Vivian Bond, Jesse Bransford, Lionel Cruet, Paula Hayes, Elisabeth Insogna, Frederick Gladding , May 18 2024 - June 23, 2024
2023
"Kindred Spirits", curated by Becky Hart, 2023, Athens Cultural Center, Athens, NY
"Notational", Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY, John Hatfield, Paula Hayes, Robin Kahn,
2022
"Women's Work", curated by Howard Zar, Lyndhurst Mansion, Tarrytown, New York
"Via Lactea" Paula Hayes, Randy Polumbo, Cristina Grajales Gallery, 50 Vestry Street, New York, NY
2020
“Cross Pollination in Art and the Environment from 19th Century to the Contemporary Moment”, a national traveling exhibition, May 9, Due to begin at Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY and Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
2019
“Lyndhurst Flower Show”, Lyndhurst Historic Mansion, Tarrytown, NY (April 5-7)
2018
“The Future is Bright”, Hudson Yards, New York, NY (November 26 to December 28)
“The Cultivist”, Pop-up art installation, New York NY (May 2)
2017
"Birdbath", Museum of Modern Art Sculpture Garden, New York, NY (July 2017 – May 2018)
2015
“Emanation: Art + Process” , Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville, NJ (May 1, 2015 – January 4, 2016)
Carolina Nitsch booth, The Armory Show, March 5-8
2014
“NYC Makers, The MAD Biennial”, The Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY (July 1 – October 12)
“Brucennial 2014”, Vito Schnabel and the Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York, NY
2013
“David Adjaye, Paula Hayes, Rick Owens,” Salon 94 booth, Design Miami Basel (June 10-13)
Carolina Nitsch booth, Art Basel, (June 13-16)
OMI International Art Center, Ghent, NY, (opened June 15th, permanent installation)
Emscherkunst 2013, Essen, Germany (June 22-October 6)
2012
“Verdant,” Curated by Lisa Tung, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery, Boston
“Glasstress,” Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass, Murano, Venice, Italy
2010
“Open Score Variations,” Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
“(Re)designing Nature,” curated by Susanne Witzgall, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
2009
“Spiritus Mundi,” Eco-Art Exhibition at the Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark
“Animamix Biennial” at Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
2008
“The Objects Show,” R 20th Century, New York, NY
“Mineral Plant Animal,” curated by Maggie Trakas, Dosa 818, Los Angeles, CA
“Mend,” Proteus Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
“Something from Nothing,” curated by Dan Cameron, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA
2006
“Design Miami ’06,” Miami, FL
“Winter Show,” Wave Hill, New York, NY
“Garden Paradise,” Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY
“Garden Improvement,” Wave Hill, Glyndor Gallery, New York, NY
“The Orchid Thief,” Sandra Gehring Gallery, New York, NY
2005
“Down the Garden Path: The Artist’s Garden After Modernism,” curated by Valerie Smith, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY
2003
“Project Room,” Ten in One Gallery, New York, NY
2002
“Works on Paper,” curated by Ron Platt, Weatherspoon Museum, University of North Carolina
“What’s the Use?,” curated by Heather Nichol, University of Michigan Art Gallery
2001
“Project Row Houses,” Houston, TX “To the Trade,” curated by Bernard Brunon, Diverse Works, Houston, TX
2000
“Paula Hayes and Joseph Gringely,” The Suburban, Oak Park, IL
“La Ville/ Le Jardin/ La Mémoire,” Villa Medicis, Rome
Landscapes
2016- 2019
"18 Acre Coastal Retreat", East Hampton, NY, with Cook Fox Architects, with native plants meadows, natural pond, dune restoration, green roofs, planted terraces, commissioned living art works inside and outside
“Pariser Garden Planted Installations”, New York, NY
2018
“Idaho Landscape”, Harrison, ID “Dallas Landscape”, Dallas, TX
“Kanders Landscape”, New York, NY
2017
“42 Crosby Street Lobby”, permanent planted commission, New York, NY
2015-2018
"Coastal Retreat", East Hampton
2017
“Lora Reynolds Landscape”, Austin, TX2010
“Atlantic Ocean Landscape, Phase 04,” East Hampton, NY
“Multi-tiered Crystal Garden, Phase 03,” New York, NY
“David & Monica Zwirner Garden,” Montauk, NY
“Marianne Boesky Garden, Rooftop Forest,” New York, NY
“Paula Hayes & Teo Camporeale Tipi Garden,” Brooklyn, NY
2009
“Treetops Terrace, Moss Garden,” New York, NY
“Hauser & Wirth Gallery,” New York, NY
“Private Residence,” East Hampton, NY
“Bathroom Forest,” New York, NY
“Ells Garden,” New York, NY
2008
“W Hotel Landscape,” Miami Beach, FL
“Multi-tiered Crystal Garden,” New York, NY
“Treetops Terrace,” New York, NY
“Jill Stuart & Ron Curtis Garden,” New York, NY
“David & Monica Zwirner Garden,” New York, NY
“Tom & Andrea Bernstein Landscape,” East Hampton, NY
2007
“Marianne Boesky Garden, Chelsea,” New York, NY
“Private Residence,” East Hampton, NY
“Andrea Kerzner Garden,” New York, NY
“Elizabeth Rosen Landscape,” Watermill, NY
2006
“Iris & Jim Marden Garden,” New York, NY
“Diana & Rafael Viñoly Garden,” Miami, FL
2005
“David Zwirner Gallery,” New York, NY
“Zwirner & Wirth Gallery Garden,” New York, NY
“Lee-Tenenbaum Garden,” New York, NY
“Historic Morven Museum Landscape,” Princeton, NJ, (not executed)
2004
“Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Campus,” Leesburg, VA
“Atlantic Ocean Landscape,” East Hampton, NY
“Mickey & Jeanne Klein Landscape,” Santa Fe, NM
“David & Monica Zwirner Garden,” New York, NY
“Cleveland Museum of Art,” Cleveland, OH, (not executed)
2003
“Private Residence,” New York, NY
2002
“Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn Garden,” New York, NY
2001
“Marianne Boesky Nantucket Landscape,” Nantucket Island, MA
2000
“Marianne Boesky Garden,” New York, NY
“Chris & Illya Vroom Garden,” New York, NY
“Ghost Planting,” Galerie fur Landschaftskunst, Hamburg, Germany
“88 Bleecker Street Lobby,” New York, NY
“Apple Maze,” Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany