Daylighting Lenapehoking
Events
Daylighting Lenapehoking
Mohawk artist Alan Michelson and ecologist Eric W. Sanderson in conversation at The Oyster.
When
Saturday, October 24th, 2026 at 2pm.
Where
The Oyster on Governors Island.
Installation view of Alan Michelson, “The Oyster” (2026). Photo by Timothy Schenck for Governors Island Arts.
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About the artist
Daylighting Lenapehoking brings Mohawk artist Alan Michelson and ecologist Eric W. Sanderson together at The Oyster to explore how art and science can surface and honor the Indigenous histories and ecologies embedded in contemporary New York, while considering strategies for recovering lost abundance.
Alan Michelson
Alan Michelson is a celebrated New York-based Mohawk artist, curator, writer, and member of Six Nations of the Grand River. For more than three decades, he has created site-responsive works in sculpture, video, installation, and public art that engage place, memory, and suppressed histories through both Indigenous and Western cultural forms.
The Knowledge Keepers, his acclaimed major public commission, stands at the Huntington Avenue entrance of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Other current projects include Hanödaga:yas (Town Destroyer): Reflect at the new Princeton University Art Museum. Major public works include Mantle (2018), a permanent monument honoring Virginia's Native nations located on the grounds of the Thomas Jefferson-designed Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.
His writings have appeared in Aperture, Frieze, and October, and his work was recently featured on Art21. His work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Canada, among others. Michelson is co-founder and co-curator of Indigenous New York, the influential series organized with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Eric W. Sanderson
Eric W. Sanderson is an ecologist who sees nature through the city. He currently serves as the Vice President for Urban Conservation at the New York Botanical Garden, where he also directs the Center for Conservation and Restoration Ecology. Sanderson is the author of the bestselling book Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (Abrams, 2009) and the soon to be published five-borough sequel, Before New York: The Natural Geography of the City (Abrams, out November 10. 2026). He is also the author of Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs (Abrams, 2013), on the (un)sustainability of the American economic system and how it might be reimagined with nature in mind. His work has been profiled in The New Yorker, National Geographic magazine, NPR, BBC, and The New York Times, and his TED talk has more 3 million views. He has published more than 65 papers and technical reports addressing problems in urban, wildlife, and landscape conservation, drawing on experiences from Mongolia to Tanzania to Patagonia to Brooklyn. Sanderson earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem and landscape ecology from the University of California, Davis, in 1998. Learn more about his work at urbanconservation.nybg.org.
Alan Michelson
Alan Michelson is an internationally recognized artist, curator, writer, and Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River. For over thirty-five years, he has worked across multimedia installation, video, sculpture, and public art to engage place, memory, and suppressed histories.
His award-winning public art practice dates to 1990. The Oyster, his latest large-scale work commissioned by More Art, recently opened on Governors Island to broad press attention. The Knowledge Keepers, his acclaimed Huntington Avenue Entrance Commission, remains on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mantle, his public monument honoring Virginia’s Indian nations, was dedicated at the Virginia State Capitol in 2018.
His work is held in major collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and National Gallery of Canada. His essays have appeared in Aperture, Frieze, and October, and his work has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Art in America, and The Art Newspaper.
Michelson co-founded and co-curated the groundbreaking Indigenous New York series with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, where he currently serves as a Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board.
Related Projects
The Oyster
A sculptural environment and gathering space reflecting on Indigenous lifeways and oyster ecologies.
Reframing 1776: Land, Water, and the Work of Repair
More Art presents Reframing 1776: Land, Water, and the Work of Repair on Governors Island from July 30-November 30. The program brings together new commissions by Alan Michelson, Danielle Jagelski, and Ortiz y Sanchez.