NEW YORK, NY.- A groundbreaking exhibition titled “Fractured Horizons” has opened across both the NY and NJ venues of PI Art Center.

The exhibition, a collaboration between VSDesign and PI Art Center, explores the tension between civilizational remnants and emerging post-human landscapes. It offers fresh perspectives on heritage and innovation.

Opened in May this year, this showcase featured works by internationally renowned contemporary Landscape Designer Shengfeng Gao alongside other distinguished artists, such as Eric Meod, Alex Diamant, Bethany Altschwager, Elise Racine, Guangming Zheng and Qin Zhao.

Shengfeng Gao, a bold experimenter pushing the boundaries of landscape design through digital visualization and AI-driven processes, played a central role in the exhibition by evoking the fragile interplay between the forward thrust of urban expansion and the quiet, ancestral rhythms of the land it seeks to inhabit.

The exhibition featured four pieces of her works: “Smoldering Landscapes--A fusion of destruction and renewal in Prescribed Burning”, created through digital images.This project envisions using prescribed burns as a medium to design wildfire buffers around cities, redefining fire not as a looming threat but as a catalyst for hope and renewal. By strategically integrating controlled burns into urban resilience strategies, Smoldering Landscapes challenges the conventional reliance on rigid, human-made solutions, advocating instead for the reintegration of natural cycles into city planning. The suppression of such ecological processes has contributed to the severity of modern wildfires, exposing the contradictions between industrial progress and environmental stewardship.

In direct response to Fractured Horizons, this series questions humanity’s dominance over landscapes and explores alternative futures where automation, artificial intelligence, and ecological intelligence shape new urban environments. Through evocative digital renderings, Gao visualizes a world where destruction and regeneration coexist, urging us to rethink how cities evolve—not against nature, but in collaboration with it.

Over the course of an accomplished career, Shengfeng has received numerous prestigious awards. Notably, she was honored with the IDA Awards Muse Design Awards and the French Design Award in Gold, as well as the American Good Design Award in Silver—an honor bestowed upon artists who have made significant contributions to landscape design. In addition, several of her projects have been nominated for the Buildner Design Competition.

Shengfeng Gao’s artistic practice, deeply rooted in landscape design, has garnered widespread recognition for its innovative approach. Her works have been exhibited on international platforms, including the prestigious Milan Design Week.

The New York Design Festival, established in 2011, has become a centerpiece on the global design calendar. Drawing over 115,000 attendees annually and reaching more than 756 million across media platforms, the festival highlights New York City’s leadership in global design and innovation.

Within this vibrant context, Shengfeng’s contributions stand out. As the art world continues to navigate questions of identity, tradition, and technology, her work, particularly “Smoldering Landscapes--A fusion of destruction and renewal in Prescribed Burning”, offers a thought-provoking journey through the evolving landscape of landscape designer innovation.