Borinquen Gallo: Jungle Bliss
Borinquen Gallo will transform the Community and Partnership Gallery into a lush, site-specific installation that explores the consequences of disposable consumer culture and its complex effect on the natural world.
Interdisciplinary artist Borinquen Gallo will transform the Hudson River Museum’s Community and Partnership Gallery into a lush, site-specific installation that explores the consequences of disposable consumer culture and its complex effect on the natural world. Knitting and threading familiar discarded materials—including netting, caution tape, and plastic bags—into dense, textural weavings, the installation appears to be a natural, verdant canopy, only to reveal itself as entirely synthetic upon closer inspection. It will also include animated projections of butterflies and jungle critters that expand visually onto the surrounding gallery walls.
This immersive installation functions as a powerful visual metaphor, examining the tensions between nature and artifice, permanence and transience, and individual responsibility and collective action. In the Hudson Valley, invasive species are spreading unchecked and reshaping local forests into dense, jungle-like landscapes; microplastics are polluting local waterways; and real estate development is fragmenting natural habitats. Gallo’s installation draws attention to pressing environmental threats and advocates for the communal stewardship and preservation of Hudson Valley’s ecosystems.
Between August 19 and September 2, Gallo will invite the public to witness and participate in her process firsthand, learn about her practice, and even contribute to the evolving exhibition at the HRM (see event for more details). By inviting participants to build alongside the artist, Jungle Bliss fosters reflection on our relationship to waste, the fragility of local ecosystems, and the need to care for both the natural and social fabric of our environment.
Borinquen Gallo is an Italian-Puerto Rican contemporary artist whose work delves into themes of transformation, repair,community, and the reimagining of sociocultural structures through sculpture and installations made with a range of repurposed materials. She received her BFA in painting and sculpture from Cooper Union, and her MFA in painting from Hunter College. Her recent art residencies include Material for the Arts in 2025 and at Kino Saito in Summer 2026. Gallo is currently Adjunct Professor of Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute in New York.
Borinquen Gallo is the Fall–Winter 2026–2027 Teaching Artist-in-Residence and will be designing weekend family workshops and leading experiences for the public on select dates.
Support for the exhibition is generously provided by Art Bridges.
Additional support is provided by Sound Associates and Material for the Arts.
The animated projections were developed in collaboration with Optical Animal, a creative video design studio based in Brooklyn.
Exhibitions are made possible in part by assistance provided by the County of Westchester and the City of Yonkers.
