Sky High Farm's Biennial Brings Art, Agriculture, and Intimacy to Germantown

Artist Dan Colen, of Sky High Farms and Sky High Farms Universe, will host more than 50 artists for TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END. The organization's biennial will be on display from June 28 through October 2025 in a former apple cold storage warehouse along the Hudson River in Germantown, NY. The Biennial is a site-specific exhibition exploring the relationship between local ecology, history, and industry in the Hudson River Valley and its connection to New York City with artworks by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mark Grotjahn, Anne Imhof, Tschabalala Self, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, and more.

Founded in 2011, Sky High Farm has become a staple in the intersection of food justice, sustainability, research and education. I was first introduced to Sky High Farms years ago through their grant program. I'd worked in agriculture for about 5 years and the pandemic hit right in the middle. Seeing a focused opportunity for agriculture during this time was rather meaningful and it pierced through a lot of simultaneously occurring offers, speaking to a rather specific audience. There wasn't as much red tape with the grant application and you could feel the artist behind it all; the website link itself jolted you into a simplistic browser page with a petite drawing of sky characters and clouds beyond them. Didn't feel like a corporation or numbers, felt more like someone who knew what it was like to take on that role, who saw the humans behind the tasks and wanted to help.

"Sky High is able to affect so many people because it has operated across various modes - from art practice to public health to ecological research. The farm was born out of a desire to move away from the business side of making art and rediscover how art can connect us. It required a belief in creating new structures and models for change, and that commitment is exemplified in this exhibition. To have 50 artists respond to Sky High's work in their own voices has been revelatory: they've rephrased our mission and amplified the scope and texture of our work — often so personal and community-based — while bringing it to a larger audience," says Dan Colen.

Colen, known for workwear collaborations with Comme des Garçons, Balenciaga, and Converse that further supported and expanded the physical farm, brings subtly personal storytelling through his art, creating an arena for other artists to do the same within their respective mediums. The exhibition is anchored by an honoring and remembrance of Joey Piecuch— a loved one and the first employee of Sky High Farm—with the title referencing Piecuch’s posthumously found work.

The agriculture, specific tactics of farm and expansion operations, along with the literal spatial juxtapositions provoke figurative thought and encourage action in unconventional ways. Colen’s work, stemming from his background in graffiti art and skateboarding, is centered around appreciation, connection, relationship, and intimacy. TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END marries two parallel worlds living side by side: the Hudson River and the industrial area the warehouse venue sits amongst.

Dan Colen seems like a human's human, if that makes any sense. In podcast interviews over the years (like Time Sensitive), he speaks a lot about being intuitive. Staying present. The background details of his art tend to center those human moments; the interactions between each other, those intricacies that one wouldn't notice unless they were trying to.