environmental art – Page 7

April 24, 2024April 24, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

This Bitter Earth: Deborah Wasserman at Kuma Lisa

Photo Story

Deborah Wasserman, Rubble, 2021, ink and acrylic on paper, 28″ x35.5″

Rubble, mutated crop fields, floods, scorched earth, and occasional female figures floating or submerged unfold throughout the sixteen landscape paintings in Deborah Wasserman’s current solo show, The Bitter Earth at Kuma Lisa. Though the paintings differ in scale and media—from small acrylic and oil on panels to larger acrylic, oil, and stained clothes on canvas to medium-sized works on paper—they all share the sense of a world where multiple perspectives from different vantage points co-exist. Wasserman’s energetic strokes and searching lines create a rhythmic movement upward, downward, and sideways—reminiscent of the fluidity in Chinese and Japanese calligraphic scroll paintings and the clear, directional lines of a hand-drawn map. These linear dynamos intertwine with a palette of earthy tones, greens, yellows, oranges, blues, reds, and pure blacks, creating multiple vignettes within a layered landscape.

April 19, 2024April 19, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Judy Hoffman: Evolvers and Wildtypes at Sculpture Space

Hot Air

A person standing next to a sculpture

Description automatically generated — The artist with Big Yellow, 18″ x 11″ x 7.5”; ceramic; 2017. Photo Credit: Linda Cunningham

Ten years ago, Judy Hoffman became enthralled with clay and hand-building. The current exhibition Evolvers and Wildtypes at the Long Island City Sculpture Space is her first solo show of these ceramic sculptures. Hoffman’s ceramics’ imagery and forms tap into a previous installation work made from sculpted paper pulp, natural materials, and man-made debris. Paper clay techniques permit the bonding of wet clay to fired forms, enabling the construction of diverse configurations. These components are conjoined to initiate a dialogue between organic and mechanical elements, yielding imagery that defies expectation. The artwork evolves through a rhythm of construction and deconstruction, encapsulating cycles of creation, deterioration, and renewal. Viewers are meant to encounter an elemental rawness, surprise, and a touch of humor.

April 15, 2024April 9, 2024, by Art Spiel

Simona Prives: towards the noise of dark waters at PRACTICE

Photo Story

Simona Prives’s latest installation at Philadelphia’s PRACTICE Gallery, towards the noise of dark waters, combines projection and collage to explore themes of renewal and decay. This site-specific installation by the Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist features life-sized projections of collages built upon densely packed drawings, ink paintings, and various printmaking techniques. These collages suggest maps, geological patterns, and industrial imagery, creating abstract yet recognizable worlds.

April 12, 2024March 29, 2024, by Hovey Brock

Tatiana Arocha: Mama Coca

Hot Air

*Hojas en movimiento sobre el fuego [Leaves in motion over the fire]*, 2023. Soft Ground etching on Hahnemühle and pigment print on Kozo paper, hand-painted with acrylic. Triptych, each 35 1/4 x 26 1/2 inches. Photograph by Etienne Frossard

Tatiana Arocha is a Brooklyn-based artist whose practice has focused on installations that include rubbings, photographs, and drawings of plants and landscapes taken from the many ecological niches of her native Colombia. Increasingly, her art and advocacy have focused on the coca plant, notorious for its role in the war on drugs, which has destroyed indigenous communities and their territories across South America. Informed by her research, her current installations and publications highlight the coca plant’s ceremonial role in the indigenous cultures that cultivate it, pushing back on the demonization it has endured in the West. Her work also suggests new avenues for how the plant can be a force for good in the Global North and South.

April 11, 2024April 8, 2024, by Art Spiel

Behind the Mask: Women Welders at the Culture Lab LIC

Featured Exhibition

Installation view, photo courtesy of Janet Rutkowski

At Culture Lab LIC in Queens, NY, the exhibition Behind the Mask: The Art of Women Welders, curated by Janet Rutkowski and Karen Kettering Dimit, is transforming perceptions of welding as a male-dominated field. Running until April 28, 2024, the show highlights the contributions and creativity of women in welding, with over 50 artworks by 30 artists.

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024, by Art Spiel

Transgressing Lands at the Boiler

Hot AIR

*Transgressing Lands: Eleven Contemporary Artists Reimagine a Horizon* Installation View. Photo: Martin Seck

The current group exhibition at The Boiler | ELM Foundation, Transgressing Lands, curated by A.E. Chapman, features work by Jeannine Bardo, Nancy Cohen, Cristina de Gennaro, Deborah Jack, Natalie Moore, Itty S. Neuhaus, Nazanin Noroozi, Lina Puerta, Corinne Teed, Elizabeth Velazquez, and Letha Wilson, who interpret the horizon’s role as a foundational element for understanding our place in the world. The artists confront pressing issues—preserving landscapes under threat, the ramifications of climate change, the realities of displacement and conflict, the significance of mindfulness, challenging colonial legacies, and the ever-present cycles of destruction and rejuvenation. Chapman’s direction for the exhibition invites viewers to engage with how landscapes can anchor us in the present moment and our collective history.

March 11, 2024February 23, 2024, by Art Spiel

Hovey Brock-Daniella Dooling-Valerie Hegarty at Catskill Art Space

HOT AIR

A close-up of a carpet

Description automatically generated — Hovey Brock, *A Golden Spike for the Anthropocene,* 2020, 30” x 40”, acrylic media on panel

Hovey Brock was a member of the Catskill Art Society (CAS) before its rebranding as the Catskill Art Space. Originally a low-key regional arts center, the transformation began under the guidance of Executive Director Sally Wright. In October 2022, Wright inaugurated the new exhibition halls, featuring on-loan installations by Sol Lewitt and James Turrell, signaling CAS’s ambition to bring world-class arts programming to Livingston Manor. This initiative marked a significant milestone in the cultural revival sweeping the entire Catskill region, with CAS playing a pivotal role. “Since so much of my work is about the Catskills, I am thrilled to have this opportunity to show my pieces at CAS, especially in the company of fellow artists Daniella Dooling and Valerie Hegarty,” Brock says.

March 6, 2024March 6, 2024, by Anne E. Whiting

Glean, Glow, Glam – Denise Treizman at Coral Springs Museum

“Ring around the rosie”, 2020-2024. | Painted vinyl, foam, styrofoam, inflatable pool, tubing, balls, wooden rocker, plexiglass, slinky, fabric, painted PVC pipe tube, rope, clamp, google balls. Photo credits: Rafael Nuñez

Every time I stumble into Denise Treizman’s work—and I do literally mean stumble: it was at an Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Open Studios Night back in 2017 when I almost walked into a pile of glitter on the floor of her then-studio and first fell heels-over-head in love with her creations—I am floored (I’m so sorry) with the particular joy that some absurdism-enthusiasts experience when presented with hilarious, kawaii, unexpected, nonessential, and in my case: sparkly, things.

February 16, 2024February 13, 2024, by Art Spiel

Embodied Futures and the Ecology of Care at BioBAT Art Space

HOT AIR

A room with a large wall with a painting on it

Description automatically generated with medium confidence — Installation view of Katie Hubbell’s, *Slow Down Soft Body, Stay with Me,* and, *Subsuming Solids,* photo courtesy of Flaneurshan Studio

In the heart of Sunset Park, within the historic Brooklyn Army Terminal, BioBAT Art Space stands as a pioneering gallery that blurs the lines between art and science. The current exhibition, Embodied Futures & the Ecology of Care, Curated by Elena Soterakis & Eve Barro, showcases eleven artists whose work merges research methods and materials from scientific practices such as genetics, mycology, microscopy, and bacterial cultivation with artistic creation. By using living yeast as their palette and mushrooms as their sculpting medium, these artists challenge conventional artistic norms.

February 16, 2024February 16, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Transformation at Socrates Sculpture Park

In Dialogue

*‘Desire Lines’ by Stefania Urist. Image by Alexa Hoyer. Courtesy of Socrates Sculpture Park.*

Founded in 1986 by artists, activists, and community members, Socrates Sculpture Park transformed an abandoned landfill into a cultural cornerstone in Queens, New York. This dual-purpose venue serves both as a public park and an exhibition space for contemporary art, targeting early- and mid-career artists. Occupying five waterfront acres, Socrates provides a unique platform for artistic expression and public engagement, offering free access to a civic space amidst the urban environment.