Over the decades environmental art has inspired numerous exhibitions around the world encompassing a range of ecological and politically motivated works of art in different mediums. This article features important art exhibitions that raise awareness about our environment. At the end, you’ll find information about an essential e-book for nature-inspired artists and environmental activists seeking more knowledge on the subject of environmental art.
“Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment”
Georgia O’Keeffe, “The Lawrence Tree,” 1929, oil on canvas. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Allen Phillips/Wadsworth Atheneum.
“Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment” is an important exhibition organized by the Princeton University Art Museum is on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts, from February 2 through May 5, 2019.
More than 100 major paintings, photographs, works on paper, and sculpture have been drawn from museum and private collections around the U.S. by leading American artists such as Ansel Adams, John James Audubon, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, Dorothea Lange, Kent Monkman (Cree), Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob August Riis, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish-Kootenai), and Andrew Wyeth. The exhibition explores evolving ideas about the environment and our place within it and reveals the human impact on the planet over the last three centuries. It compels us to reconsider the relationships between art, the environment, and ourselves.
As stated on the Museum’s press release: “Nature’s Nation reconsiders American and Native American art within the context of environmental history and the study of living things’ relation to their surroundings. The exhibition highlights shifting visions and realities of nature as artists reflect and shape societal attitudes toward the natural world. As perspectives emerge, we are learning anew that the natural world is not a fixed concept but dynamic reality.”
“This timely exhibition opens on the heels of landmark reports from the United Nations and the White House that underscore the dire and impending consequences of climate change. Both conclude humans’ activities are having a dangerous impact on the environment and, as a result, there is an extreme risk of irreversibly affecting all human, built, and natural systems. It is critical to our time to acknowledge that humans, animals, water, land, and sky are all connected.”
For more information visit Peabody Essex Museum
“ALL THE WORLD”
Installation view from Davina Semo’s one-person exhibition “ALL THE WORLD”, at Marlborough Contemporary. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Marlborough Contemporary presents “ALL THE WORLD”, by Davina Semo, through February 16, 2019. According to the press release, these large-scale sculptures in bronze and aluminum and wall pieces made from colored plastic and steel ball bearings, bring attention to “our lived environment: the symbiosis of power and control, and the friction between brutality and physical beauty.”
Semo created these works during a series of catastrophic wildfires in her state of California. She provides insight about the global “circulation of resources and their inherent capability for dramatic reuse — especially as it relates to an increasingly overwhelming ecological anxiety.”
Semo earned her MFA at the University of California, San Diego and her BA in Visual Arts from Brown University. She is represented by Marlborough Contemporary (New York and London), Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco), and Ribordy Contemporary (Geneva).
For more information about this exhibition visit Marlborough Contemporary
“The Healing Power of Elements” 2023
The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS is an initiative of Manhattan Arts International established after curating several exhibitions on the subject of “The Healing Power of ART”. The website proclaims: “We are a community of artists, writers and activists who believe that art can serve as a catalyst for healing individuals, society and the environment, our mission is to raise awareness for positive change through art.”
The exhibition was on view September 4 – November 4, 2023. It featured 75 artists. The superior works of art on view revealed the many physical aspects of the four elements in addition to their emotive, symbolic, and healing qualities. This important exhibition continues our series of nature-related projects that raise awareness about our need to respect and protect the natural world.
A recent exhibition You can view art from this exhibition on The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS website. To view them visit “The Healing Power of Elements”
More of our exhibitions related to nature include:
Autumn – Art by Artist Members
Spring Online Art Exhibition
Fantastic Flora and Fauna
Change and Evolution
Elizabeth Solich says
Hi,
My name is Elizabeth and I live in Australia, Adelaide.
I’m querying about the exhibitions open for international artists focused on environmental messaging.
Can you please point me at the right direction,
Thank you,
Kind regards,
Elizabeth
Renee Phillips says
Dear Elizabeth, We plan to present more exhibitions related to Nature on our other website “The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS”. In addition to the links provided above to two exhibitions, you can learn more about upcoming exhibitions with this link: Exhibitions