Jonathan VanDyke

Back in June, in a former distillery on the northern edge of Berlin, my Bard colleague @john.kleckner and I organized impromptu shows of our own work and that of our @bard_college_berlin summer students. I created work entirely from things I found, with the intention of letting it emerge from the ground up, rather than imposing my own hand. I made egg tempera paintings on top of crumpled store fliers found on the street, and a “living still life” from found bottles and buckets and wildflowers growing in the cracks around campus. I stuffed an old safe with flowers and showed a new video, too (images 1-10).

John installed his fabulous paintings (images 11-12) next door to my installation, and we installed our students’ drawing experiments (image 13-17) throughout the building.

Exploring abandoned factory spaces was a big creative spark for me as a teenager, and it was magical working in these buildings -- recently acquired by Bard Berlin -- their wildness underlined by the inescapable & record-setting heat. In a world that demands outcomes and efficiency it’s liberating to show work that's not "finished" and let it breathe.

We had an amazing summer session (thanks to a wonderful group of students) and the program will return in June '27. DM me if you know an undergrad who might be interested.