Spoke Art presents Maiming the West, a solo pop-up exhibition by Oakland-based artist Peter Adamyan

Inspired by the exploited land and people of the western United States, Maiming the West tells “the story of manifest destiny in post-Civil War America and how Reconstruction attempts failed in the South. My work explores loggers, miners, railroad workers, and ranchers; the way these American tycoons "tamed" the land in an effort to profit from it, leaving a path of destruction, genocide, and extinction in their wake.” ––Peter Adamyan

DisneyfyingDenali

With increased access to national parks and growing mistreatment of wild places, “many have become nothing more than tourist attractions no better than amusement parks, leading to what many call the 'Disneyfication' of the national parks. Social media romanticize the parks to death, indicating that even land set aside to be wild and free has become valued only through profit or vanity. I set out to create a body of work teetering on this uneasy beauty between wild and natural lands, and the omnipresent hand of man, willing to destroy it for an unsustainable fortune.”

Maiming the West opens June 29th, with an opening night reception from 6 to 9 pm, and will be on view through Saturday, July 6th.