Stowaway is pleased to present ‘Laying Pipe’, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based Robert Polidoro. Polidoro presents 5 paintings on linen along with a selection of framed pastel drawings. Please join us for an artist reception November 8th, 2025, from 5­–8 pm.

In February of 2017 I went for a hike with my brother and father in Utah. After a three-hour drive into the desert, we ascended an industrial road to the top of a mesa, put cross-country skis on our feet, and set out due east. The ground was covered in snow, the sky was clear, and the only reference point we had was a pipeline that extended miles ahead of us, and miles behind us.

The Bill Barrett Corporation started extracting natural gas from this canyon complex in 2002, five hundred years after the Ute people had carved the images of bison into the cliffs, and twelve hundred years after the Fremont people built irrigation canals in the river washes that dot the landscape. It took us three days and two nights to cross the mesa, we saw no evidence of human activity except the pipeline pointing towards infinity. On the third day my brother spotted something in the distance, we set off towards it, a mile off course. As we approached , we made out it was a large elk, standing perfectly still. We shuffled our skis cautiously before we realized it was frozen stiff, half of its flesh burnt away by the sun, its skeleton exposed, its fur and hide on the opposite side remained, preserved by the shade and the cold. In order to get back to our car, we hitched a ride with a large Mormon family who let us sit in the back of their crowded minivan.

I’ve been thinking a lot about nature, what it means, and what it signifies. There is very little that we experience that is truly natural. Much of what we perceive as natural is carefully curated for us, and when we experience something truly natural it can seem other worldly. It’s very rare that we get to experience these sublime moments, so I’ve tried to carefully curate them here for you.

-Rob Polidoro

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Robert Polidoro was born in Manhattan, NY and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in Painting in 2016. He studied in Rome in the European Honors Program in the fall of 2015 and was a resident at Moosey in Norwich, England in 2024. Recent solo shows include “Oh The Places You’ll Go” at 1969 in Manhattan and “Internal Combustion” at Ascend Projects in Hong Kong. This is Polidoro’s debut solo presentation in Los Angeles and first time showing with the gallery.