"The Dolomites Project #7," 2010. © Olivo Barbieri, Courtesy of the Artist and the Yancey Richardson Gallery

“The Dolomites Project,” an exhibition by Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri, tells the story of mountains as designed architecture and metaphor for society’s relationship to the natural world. According to Barbieri, “seascapes, great waterfalls, mountains and old city centers have become fragile theme parks. Entertainment has virtually replaced the sublime. The veduta genre of megalopolises may, by dimension and consideration, compete with nature for importance in the collective imagination. The Dolomites are symbolic forms in movement whose history began two hundred and fifty million years ago. Their component material came from oceanic abysses and recalls the latter’s design, almost an upside-down history of the earth.”

The opening and book signing for “Olivo Barbieri: The Dolomites Project” is Thursday, February 16, from 6  – 8 pm at the Yancey Richardson gallery in New York City.