(Boston, MA—June 23, 2026) On August 27, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) unveils a major new artwork entitled Valley from Baltimore-based artist Cynthia Daignault (b. 1978 in Baltimore). Created for the ICA’s Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser Gallery, Valley consists of 96 identically sized, subtly different paintings of Tunnel View, the most iconic vista of Yosemite National Park. Daignault’s monumental installation considers the construction of American identity through notions of the sublime and manifest destiny, contemporary image saturation, and the spiritual nature of a daily painting practice. On view from August 27, 2026, to January 18, 2027, Cynthia Daignault: Valley is organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Mannion Family Curator at the ICA, with Meghan Clare Considine, Curatorial Assistant at the ICA.
Daignault conceives of her work as “long-form painting.” For the artist, painting holds a relationship to spiritual daily practices of slowness and meditation, calling one’s attention to the nuances of light, shadow, and the passage of time. She reconfigures the mythologies and ideologies of traditional landscape painting, creating expansive groupings—at times consisting of hundreds of panels—that make up her large-scale installations. Her intimate and episodic paintings are conceived as anti-heroic counterpoints to the iconic, centering on the idea that the American landscape is a witness to history, capturing specific moments with each panel and establishing the cinematic sense of a narrative unfolding over time.
The Tunnel View vista presented in Valley—which includes landmarks such as El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall—was made famous through the 19th century photographs and paintings of the landscape by Carleton Watkins and Albert Bierstadt, respectively, and later through the popular photographs of Ansel Adams, recreated by dozens of professional and amateur photographers every day from the stone platform in the park constructed to frame the iconic vista for visitors.
Daignault painted Valley using digital photographs of Tunnel View as references, emphasizing that these are paintings of ephemeral digital files rather than physical landscapes. The serial paintings are configured as a tiled grid that recalls a digital image database or online search engine results page. For Daignault, vernacular figurative painting is a base unit that allows her to address larger conceptual concerns about the construction of American identity and mythology through an anti-heroic artwork that denies a singular, masterful view of the landscape. Valley summons all the associations called forth by Tunnel View in a format that ultimately, according to the artist, “speaks to the fractured nature of the contemporary psyche and our virtual experience of nature.”
“Daignault challenges the singular viewpoint historically presented in American landscape painting,” said De Blois. “For her presentation at the ICA, Daignault returns to the popular vista of Yosemite through the highly processed ecosystem of digital images that influence our evolving relationship with the American landscape insofar as they speak to ideas about what it means to be American.”
Artist Bio
Daignault received a BA in Art and Art History from Stanford University. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New Museum, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Mass MOCA, North Adams, MA; and more. Her work is held in several public collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Dallas Museum of Art; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2019 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and a 2011 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant.
About the ICA
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Media Contact
Theresa Romualdez, press@icaboston.org
Credits
Cynthia Daignault: Valley is organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Mannion Family Curator, with Meghan Clare Considine, Curatorial Assistant.
This exhibition is supported by Jim Cleary and Tobias and Kristin Welo.
