Climate Art Beat℠
Spring/Summer Calendar 2019
Michael Strano, MIT Chemical Engineering, and Sheila Kennedy, MIT Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and KVA Studio (United States), Nanobionic Plant Project: Ambient Illumination (2016-ongoing). Nanobionic watercress plants. Dimensions variable. Courtesy of MIT Professor S. Kennedy & Professor M. Strano Research Groups. ©Cooper Hewitt Press Images. On exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Museum.
We are pleased to highlight these 10 pioneering climate art events.
Chicago, IL
James Balog, Blue Ponds Formed by Meltwater in Alaska’s Columbia Glacier (left) and Meltwater River Formed by Glacier Melt in Greenland (right). Photographs. ©2014 James Balog/Extreme Ice Survey. Courtesy of the artist and Museum of Science and Industry.
Museum of Science and Industry
Extreme Ice captures the immediacy of climate change with James Balog’s visually stunning photographs and time-lapse videography of melting glaciers. To illustrate the physical and technological challenges Balog and his team had to overcome to gather this compelling footage, the exhibition displays their customized camera, expedition equipment, and a touchable 7-foot tall ice wall.
Now to Nov., 2020
Washington, DC
Leah Evans, The World Is Sinking (2019) Quilt. ©Evans 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Smithsonian Craft Show
Twenty-one exhibitors representing the finest contemporary American design and craft artists vie for the Honoring the Future Sustainability Award, presented to the artist whose work best educates the public about, or inspires or models a sustainable response to, climate change. Collectively, these works illustrate why we need climate action and suggest inventive ways to achieve it.
April 24 – 28, 2019
New York, NY
Nancy Cohen, Low Tide (2018). Monoprint, ink, paper pulp and handmade paper. Dimensions: 44″ x 44.” ©Cohen 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts Gallery
Nancy Cohen’s work highlights the critical importance of resilient waterways. Her newest series, Force: Observations from the Interior, honors their delicate balance between fragility and strength. Cohen finds inspiration – and hope – in the remarkable resilience of waterways in the face of human-inflicted harm.
Now through May 4, 2019
Milwaukee, WI
Alexis Rockman, Cascade (2015). Oil and alkyd on wood panel. Dimensions: 72” x 144”. Collection: Grand Rapids Art Museum, 2015.19. © 2015, Alexis Rockman. Courtesy of the artist.
Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
The Great Lakes Cycle, a solo exhibition of Alexis Rockman’s paintings, watercolors and field drawings, explores the past, present and future of the Great Lakes and the challenges they face from climate change and human pollution. This exhibition then travels to Detroit, MI as part of a 5-state tour.
Feb. 8 – May 19, 2019
Houston, TX
Diane Burko, Molokai (2018) Acrylic on canvas. Dimensions: 42″ x 42.” ©Burko, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and the National Academy of Sciences.
Cindy Lisica Gallery
Endangered, a solo exhibition of Diane Burko’s paintings, prints and video, continues and deepens the artist’s exploration of two major impacts of climate change: the dramatic disappearance of glaciers and the destruction of coral reefs. Initial works in this series debuted to acclaim at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC (below).
May 3 – June 8, 2019
Easton, PA
Peter Handler, Aerial View of Drunken Forest on the Tanana Flats (2015). Photograph. ©Handler Studio 2015.
Nurture Nature Center
Honoring the Future partners with the Center to host Alaskan Journey: Artists Respond to Climate Change. This exhibition showcases work by two Pennsylvania artists, who traveled to Alaska to meet with scientists, examine the impacts of climate change, and paint and photograph what they saw. From April 15 – May 15, 2019, visitors can don headsets to watch Let’s Explore, our 360° virtual reality film on climate change.
April 15 – June 20, 2019
Boulder, CO
James Balog, Ilulissat Isfjord (2007). Photograph. ©James Balog, Earth Vision Institute. Courtesy of the University of Colorado Art Museum.
University of Colorado Art Museum
Documenting Change: Our Climate (Past, Present, Future) examines strategies shared by artists and scientists to document and explain climate change. The exhibition includes historical and contemporary works to demonstrate connections between artistic production and scientific discovery.
Now through June 8, 2019
Old Lyme, CT
Courtney Mattison installing her work. Photograph by Arthur Evans. ©Florence Griswold Museum.
Florence Griswold Museum
In Fragile Earth: The Naturalist Impulse in Contemporary Art, four leading contemporary artists create new installations from natural and non-traditional materials to make visible the human role in climate change and to show how our daily choices may endanger our planet’s future.
June 1 – September 8, 2019
New York, NY
Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Bamboo Theatre (2015–ongoing). Bamboo. Dimensions: 800 x 2000 cm (315” x 787.4”). Photo by Wang Ziling ©DnA_Design and Architecture
Cooper Hewitt Museum
Nature By Design features more than 60 groundbreaking works from designers collaborating with scientists, engineers, farmers, environmentalists, and nature itself to devise creative solutions to the crisis of human-caused climate change.
May 10, 2019 – Jan. 20, 2020
Boston, MA
Olafur Eliasson, Northwest Passage (2018). Stainless steel, LED lights, diffusers. Dimensions: approximately 90 ft. long. Commissioned by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Photograph by Anton Grassi ©Olafur Eliasson.
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, MIT.nano Building
Olafur Eliasson’s Northwest Passage references the sea route opening across the Arctic as ice coverage dwindles. Eliasson’s polished stainless steel panels evoke free-floating sea ice. As the ice melts, passage becomes easier, encouraging shipping which, in turn, burns fossil fuels, melting more ice. An optical illusion invites closer observation of this paradox: the installation’s semi-circular light rings, mirrored in steel, seem fully circular as the viewer changes position, a wry comment on our fleeting attention to climate change.
Permanent Installation