An exhibition of artworks that formally and conceptually investigate maps, borders, directional systems, and distances will be on view at Paula Cooper Gallery from July 8–August 8, 2025. In a time of heightened violence at geographical borders and boundaries, along with challenges to sovereignty and statehood around the world, the visual language of cartography is increasingly politicized. Dating from the early 1960s to the present day, the works in the exhibition question the presumed objectivity of cartographic conventions.

As art moved outside in the 1960s and 1970s, maps were often used to conceive, plan and record site-specific projects. In the work of Douglas Huebler, Robert Morris, Richard Long and Robert Smithson maps document ambitious proposals and realized works that create environmental interventions using the body and the earth. Around this time, Sol LeWitt began working on a series of altered maps of cities, cutting out and removing landmarks or arbitrary shapes formed by connecting specific locations. In this way, LeWitt envisioned fantastic site-based interventions outside of the realm of possibility.

By altering and abstracting found maps, Tauba Auerbach, Jennifer Bartlett, Alighiero Boetti and Sam Durant upend geographic assumptions. Auerbach uses a stereographic projection to center the Southern Hemisphere, cutting along natural rather than arbitrary boundaries, while Durant turns a map of the Americas upside down and overlays it with Mandarin characters. In Boetti’s series of twelve prints, the artist traced landmasses from the front page of a newspaper to create a record of the changing territories affected by political conflict between June 1967 and March 1971. In a series of paintings from the early 2000s, Bartlett interprets printed maps of African and Middle Eastern countries, transforming topographical signs into painterly abstractions. Cynthia Hawkins builds upon this impulse in her recent work, refining a self-made map into amorphous forms and navigating lines that become compositional tools for fully abstract paintings. A site-specific work by Carey Young presents a radical reevaluation of the legal language surrounding borders and citizenship.

The exhibition will also include a sculpture oriented with cardinal directions by Carl Andre; prints by Terry Adkins, and Walid Raad / The Atlas Group that incorporate existing maps; works on paper that infuses maps with personal memories by Sophie Calle, Zoe Leonard and Veronica Ryan; and photographs and sculptures by Jane Benson, Sarah Charlesworth and Liz Glynn that reimagine the 3D globe. In addition, works by Peter Moore and Louise Lawler that examine directional systems will be on view, along with a work on paper by Dan Graham that explores the relationship between distance, time and perspective.