Reconstituted Lands

MFA Thesis Exhibition

by Calvin Ulrich 

Exhibition: March 24 - 28, 2026

Reception: Friday, March 27th, 6-8p

Reconstituted Lands is a reimagination of the landscape painting tradition. 

The instability of the environment contained within these works is both reflective of current global climate realities and a symbol of the intersection between place and identity. As such, the depiction of space contains a certain malleability that can be mended, stitched together, or forcefully combined. A grafted terrain results, wedged like clay, evolving and impermanent.

Through a more active depiction of nature as a dynamic and living force, some agency is given back to it. Trees become an inhabitant of the landscape with individual life and influence. Waterfalls dissipate into chromatic clouds, acting as smoke signals for an environment under stress. And elephants become a destructive force that challenges hierarchies of power. The unique ability of painting allows for an acknowledgement of the pessimistic ecological certainties of today, while also suggesting the optimism of nature’s resilience.

To reconstitute is both to change the form and to restore. This body of work seeks that balance, changing the form of nature genre painting, and restoring my own relationship to place. The more you become lost in the unfamiliar environments of invented worlds, the easier it is to understand where you have been before.

More About Calvin

Calvin Ulrich’s large scale and intricate work expands upon the range of historic landscape traditions through a colliding of disparate topographic features and natural terrain. His paintings and drawings explore the memory and ecological time scales of mountains, trees, and animals and their agency within the landscape. Calvin grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe, until the age of 10, leading to his lifelong love of the natural world. Every member of his family has been charged by an elephant.

Learn more about Calvin: calvinulrichfinearts.com | IG: @calvinulrich