Off the Coast of Paradise

Off the Coast of Paradise is the first major exhibition and publication to explore the profound impact of Ossabaw Island--an undeveloped, 26,000-acre barrier island off the coast of Savannah--on artists in the United States during the latter half of the twentieth century. The show, which opens at the Jepson Center, Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia in March 2026, focuses on a pair of revolutionary multidisciplinary residency programs known as the Ossabaw Island Project (OIP) and Genesis that ran on the island from 1961-1982 and their legacies in its examination of Ossabaw as a site for creative experimentation. Taking its name from a poem written by renowned poet and former Genesis member, Henri Cole, the exhibition and publication feature the work of internationally renowned artists who either participated in the residency programs or who have spent time on Ossabaw in the years since, including Harry Bertoia, Agnes Denes, Allison Janae Hamilton, Marcy Hermansader, Suzanne Jackson, Ellen Lanyon, Doris Lee, Sally Mann, Michael Mazur, Ross McElwee, Athena Tacha, Betty Tompkins, and Anne Truitt. These artists have considered the island through a myriad of lenses in their work, including the historical, the environmental, the social, the cultural, and the personal. The lavishly illustrated exhibit catalogue features new scholarly essays and first-hand accounts on topics including Sandy West's ecofeminist vision for Ossabaw, African American artists in the Georgia Sea Islands, and Gullah Geechee lived experience in oral history and film.