The stability of the landscape beneath our feet is a constant that we all take for granted. It is the template 
for all existence and culture. Yet due to today’s selling, reselling, and speculation we find ourselves 
experiencing an uncertainty about land use not seen in our country since the Depression.

Each unique in their approach, Lauren Portada, Tiana Peterson, Carl Gunhouse and Christine Rogers all 
deal with the current state of landscape: the seduction of the suburban, our utopian ideals, the realities 
of development, and the erosion of our hopes and dreams. 

Lauren Portada’s paintings depict a space of post-apocalyptic wilderness. Her dark, murky, and 
unrecognizable landscapes depict the fear that these once promising ideal neighborhoods will be 
abandoned, becoming a wasteland of unfinished roads and overgrown lots.

Tiana Peterson’s collages of Frank Gehry’s architectural pop-up books present an ideal artistic vision of 
land use, where we find a deconstructed landscape inhabited by undulating architectural sleights of hand, 
poetic references to Gehry’s work.

Carl Gunhouse makes landscape photographs of housing developments to confront the stark reality that the 
suburban ideal is vanishing. The security once assured with a home outside the city has morphed into a 
blind alley of devalued homes and insurmountable debt.

Christine Rogers directly addresses the promise offered by a land lot with a home, the assurance that once 
purchased, a home will provide a lasting sense of security, a comfortable framework for personal and 
family happiness. Her photographs lovingly depict the sunny, soft-focus fantasy that suburbia promise 
residents.