Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's First US Institutional Show at CCS Bard Features Vivarium and Perception-Altering Works

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's inaugural US institutional exhibition at CCS Bard in Annandale-on-Hudson ran from 23 June to 14 October 2018. The show's centerpiece, A Transparent Leaf Instead of the Mouth (2017), is a large glass vivarium containing local plants alongside foreign stick and leaf insects so well-camouflaged they become difficult to spot. This environment was created with assistance from Bard's horticultural staff. Another work, Spiral Forest (2017), is a 16mm film shot with a custom-built camera rig called Spiral Forest Gimbal (2014–15) that rotates 360 degrees according to an artist-devised score, producing dizzying, multi-perspective views of a tropical habitat. The installation Elegancia y renúncia (2011) features a dried rubber plant leaf mounted on a metal stand with circular cutouts through which light is projected. Additional pieces include holography plates depicting hands, twigs, leaves, and bugs; a wall drawing titled Morfogenesis – cripsis (2013) showing cellular structures; and Systemic Grid (Window) 17 (2015), a thick glass sheet set in a concrete base that challenges viewers to look at or through it. The exhibition explores themes of perception, environmental surveying, and botanical science through shifts in scale and perspective.