A Polar Bear Drowns in Evaporated Seas: Jonathan Latiano

Runs / March 27 – April 30, 2022

Reception First Friday / April 1, 6-9PM
Gallery Hours / Sat + Sun, 2-6 PM

This March to April Grizzly Grizzly premieres A Polar Bear Drowns In Evaporated Seas, a solo show by sculptor and educator Jonathan Latiano. Built over the past two years of quarantine, his room-sized installation features artificial snow banks with a walkable pathway toward and then around a crystalized skeleton of a polar bear. Using site-grown salt crystals to cover the carefully cut and sized foam, Latiano creates a beautiful, yet sad, illusion that is at once a “memorial, spectacle, and crumbling graveyard” for our times.

In order to construct and transport the installation from Boston to Philadelphia, Latiano created a full-scale model of Grizzly Grizzly in his studio. Heavily invested in process and the re-use of discarded materials, he sourced construction foam from dumpsters and 500 lbs of salt from Morton Salt to fabricate a white-on-white landscape that viewers will be able to examine closely as they walk through the space. During the week-long installation Latiano altered the space into its new snowy-salty state by making salt crystals from a supersaturated salt solution which takes between three to seven days to crystalize, depending on the temperature. He meticulously carved each bone of his polar bear referencing anatomical drawings for accuracy. He states that, “the focal point of the installation is a to-scale polar bear skeleton, emerging out of the floor of the space and suspended in a lattice of plexiglass and crystalized salt.” 

Part poetry and part DIY science experiment, Latiano’s installation symbolically fuses “an arctic tundra” with an “evaporated ocean,” an impossible and deadly geological overlap that provokes consideration of what the future may hold for us in the face of unaddressed climate change. Like a natural history museum showcasing the bones of inhabitants of this planet, from past to present, in order to simultaneously educate and entertain visitors, Latiano uses similar analytical techniques in his immersive installation to explore and provoke conversation about our limited time to respond to human-induced environmental catastrophe.

2020-22 Grizzly Grizzly programming and residencies are supported by Added Velocity which is administered by Temple Contemporary at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University and funded by the William Penn Foundation.

Artist Bio

Fields of science such as biology and geology are starting points for much of Jonathan Latiano’s artwork. His sculptures and large-scale installations have been exhibited internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; Washington, DC; and London, England. His work has been featured in local, national and international science and art publications and his artistic and teaching practices have earned him multiple honors and awards including the 2013 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize in Art, Moravian College’s 2015 Outstanding Young Alumni Award, and the 2016 Bunting Teaching Fellowship in Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He received his BA in Studio Art from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2006 and his Masters in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012. Latiano maintains his studio practice in Boston, Massachusetts, and serves as the Director of the Art & Art History Program at Merrimack College.