Americana: Future Rural is an important exhibition that developed out of the time Linda Shevlin spent on residency with M12 Studio in 2015. Driven by her interests in rural representation in international contexts, Shevlin visited M12 Studio in Byers, Colorado and curated a selection of project ephemera dating back to 2009. M12 archived materials are also available through our partnership with the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art. The subject of the exhibition comes from the increasing desire for an expanded view of land use and the commodification of rural space, the loss of wilderness and notions of displacement and replacement. The exhibition provides a perspective on the past, present and future manifestations of the rural.

Brian Duggan The Last Day Diary, featuring John Hurt, is a film inspired by a specific historical relic from the Johnson County War in 1882 Wyoming. It is a powerful but contemplative film which draws on the pressures between those with land and those without.

John Gerrard is best known for works that typically take the form of digital simulations displayed using Real-time computer graphics.Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) 2015, a simulation based on a detailed photographic survey of Google™s data farm in Oklahoma is being presented along with Grow Finish Unit (near Elkhart, Kansas) 2008.

Kim Shively is a filmmaker based in Denver, Colorado. Her film Tumbleweed looks at how over the last century, the tumbleweed has embodied the roaming frontier spirit of the American West, it has been romanticized and many times objectified, reinforcing our pastoral dreams of the country.

M12 Studio, based in Colorado, is known for groundbreaking and award-winning creative projects that explore the aesthetics of rural cultures and landscapes. A selection of ephemera from current and past projects is represented, including video documentation, posters, and a number of limited edition publications by M12/Jap Sam Books that will be available for viewing and purchase.