James Prosek: Memory, Trees, & Shadows

Now Available: Exhibition Catalog for James Prosek - Memory, Trees & Shadows

The Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center is proud to announce the publication of the official catalog accompanying its landmark exhibition, Memory, Trees, and Shadows by artist, writer, and naturalist James Prosek.

This beautifully designed publication captures a vibrant "visual conversation" between Prosek’s contemporary masterworks and the art of Edward Hopper and Josephine Nivison Hopper. pairing Jo Hopper’s near-abstract tree portraits with Prosek’s investigation of shadows and mark-making. Exploring how we classify, name, and connect with the natural world, the volume delves into urgent themes including climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous land stewardship. Add this essential volume to your collection today to explore the shared legacy of observing and preserving the natural landscape.

What’s Inside

Insightful Essays: Features an artist statement by James Prosek alongside an essay by Carter Foster, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art and a leading scholar of Edward Hopper’s drawings.
Full-Color Artwork & Complete Checklist: A fully illustrated exhibition checklist documenting over twenty new works by Prosek, collaborative sculptures Penobscot artist Sarah Sockbeson, and rare charcoal, graphite drawings by Edward Hopper and watercolors by Josephine Nivison Hopper.

Publication & Purchasing Details

James Prosek Memory, Trees, and Shadows (2026)
Publication: Softcover, 52 pages, color
ISBN: ISBN: 979-8-9855120-2-1
Price: $30.00 (Museum Members: $26.00) + tax
Fulfillment: Available for purchase at the Edward Hopper House Museum and Online [link] (with option of in-store pickup or domestic shipping for $10.00).
Contact; [email protected]; 845.358.0774

PURCHASE CATALOG

JAMES PROSEK: Memory, Trees & Shadows — A Visual Conversation with Josephine Nivison Hopper, Edward Hopper, and Sarah Sockbeson

May 8, 2026 – October 4, 2026
Opening Reception May 8, 6-8 pm

The Edward Hopper House Museum is proud to present a major new exhibition by artist, writer, and naturalist James Prosek. Through a stunning series of over twenty new works—including watercolors of native grasses, plein air canvases, and innovative sculptures—Prosek invites visitors to explore how we classify, name, and communicate our place within the natural world.

James Prosek: Memory, Trees & Shadows
A Visual Conversation with Josephine Nivison Hopper, Edward Hopper, and Sarah Sockbeson

At the heart of Memory, Trees & Shadows is a central bronze tree stump. From its base, a cut-steel shadow of a living tree stretches across the gallery floor, serving as a powerful meditation on what persists in memory and matter after loss.

Artist James Prosek at the Edward Hopper House Museum preparing the installation for exhibition.

The exhibition also addresses urgent contemporary themes, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous land stewardship. A key highlight features three collaborative works with Penobscot artist Sarah Sockbeson, blending intricately woven ash and sweetgrass baskets with Prosek’s sculpted clay flowers—a metaphorical weaving of diverse cultural perspectives.

Sarah Sockbeson and James Prosek,Spring (Moccasin Flower or Pink Lady’s Slipper), 2025, (basket by Sockbeson: black ash, sweetgrass, dye, clay, oil, and watercolor, moss, food coloring; flower by Prosek: clay with oil and watercolor) Courtesy of the artist. Photo credit: Argenis Apolinario

A Visual Conversation with the Hoppers

Conceived as a primer to Framing Nature, planned for the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College in 2027, this exhibition is tailored specifically for the Edward Hopper House to create a unique "visual conversation" between Prosek’s contemporary pieces and the historical work of Josephine Nivison Hopper and Edward Hopper.

Drawing from loans from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Provincetown Art Association Museum, private collections and the museum's collection, the exhibition showcases drawings of trees by Edward and Josephine Nivision Hopper in charcoal, graphite, and watercolor. By placing Jo Hopper’s expressive, near-abstract tree portraits alongside Prosek’s fascination with shadows and mark-making, the exhibition highlights the shared legacy of observing and preserving the natural landscape.

"This exhibition fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and engages broader communities. It deepens awareness of local landscapes, environmental challenges, and the reciprocal relationship between humans and nature."— Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, Executive Director

The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalog featuring an essay by Carter Foster, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, and a leading scholar of Edward Hopper’s drawings. It will be available in mid May.

IMAGES

Images may be downloaded, reproduced, and published by members of the press for the sole purpose of creating or supporting timely news stories related to the Edward Hopper House and its exhibitions, programs, and events. Use of the press images for any other purpose requires the additional prior permission of the Edward Hopper House and may also require the additional prior permission of third-party rights holders. Obtaining these permissions is the sole responsibility of the press user. Press images may not be downloaded, reproduced, or published by commercial stock houses or archives under any circumstances. Press images must be reproduced in their entirety, and must include the identifying information provided by the Edward Hopper House, collection information, credit lines, and copyright. Images may not be cropped, detailed, overprinted, or altered without prior approval.

Credit for all images: Courtesy of the Artist

For HIGHER-RES images, please contact [email protected]

James Prosek in his studio, Photo Credit: Luis Garvan; Courtesy of the Artist and Waqas Wajahat, New York

ABOUT JAMES PROSEK

James Prosek is an artist, writer, and naturalist whose work pays homage to the history of art and natural sciences while addressing contemporary environmental concerns. He published his first book, Trout: An Illustrated History (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), at nineteen. Since then, he has authored over a dozen books and exhibited globally — at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, among many others.

In 2003 he received a Peabody Award for his documentary retracing Izaak Walton’s journey through England. The catalog from his exhibition James Prosek: Art, Artifact, Artifice at the Yale University Art Gallery received the Gold Medal in the Fine Arts category of the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Recent projects include a book, Gardener’s Eden, resulting from an artist residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a large-scale prairie mural in Fort Worth, Texas featuring 120 species of plants native to the Fort Worth prairie.

Prosek is a curatorial affiliate and Leadership Council member of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, and a member of the advisory board of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies.

Learn More about this exhibition on Bloomberg Connects!

James Prosek: Memory, Trees & Shadows is made possible, in part, by support provided by the New York Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation, special donors Jace & Jacko Day and Tom & Nancy Gravina, and Waqas Wajahat, New York.