Visual Arts
In a startling variety of ways, contemporary artists are exploring the relationship that our species has to its planet. We have aggregated some of this very intriguing work below. If you have suggestions for works to add to the gallery, please contact us.
Works can also be viewed in portfolio view.
2014-15 Curator: Julia Olson
Photographer Kevin Horan’s series Chattel poses a question: what would it look like if his ungulate neighbors came into the studio and asked to have their portraits made? The Langley, Washington-based artist captured hoofed animals (also known as ungulates) that are on and around Whidbey Island. He depicts an up-close and personal view of the creatures that are part of farmland and nursery rhymes. Horan’s subjects are set against a dark background, and his limited color palette washes the animals in warm gray tones. It gives the images a timeless feel and also highlights incredible details. Mounds of thick, textured fur and imposing antlers look unexpectedly stately, and when alone, their unique personalities shine. Horan presents these creatures in ways that we don’t normally see, and he’s removed them from places like a petting zoo to instead make them the focal point of gorgeous fine art images. (source).
The Beautiful Destruction project features photographs of the Alberta Tar Sands, captured by Louis Helbig, who visited the oil/tar sands in the winter of 2012, and again, for 7 weeks in the spring and early summer of 2013 to illuminate contradiction – what is beautiful and destructive about the development in northern Alberta – seems to open space for imagination and discussion. The public reaction to these photographs suggests that there can be a place for reflection, sharing and thinking, unencumbered by the deep-seated divisive polarities that usually characterize debate about and comment on the tar/oil sands. (source).
Jason deCaires Taylor is an acclaimed sculptor who creates underwater living installations. His site-specific, permanent works are designed to act as artificial reefs, attracting corals, increasing marine biomass and aggregating fish species, while crucially diverting tourists away from fragile natural reefs and thus providing space for natural rejuvenation (source).
Artist Conrad Godly uses swift paint strokes filled with thick paints that drip down and sometimes off of the canvas to express the eminent force of elevated mountain peaks. According to one reviewer, “Godly shovels entire loads of paint onto the canvas and then layers them, rolls them, pushes them together, and combines them. The very thick application never dries completely inside, but always remains somewhat liquid, no different from the magma in the innermost part of the Earth; an idea that Godly likes.” In a sense, the artist’s work can be considered abstract because he never quite depicts a single, exact mountain. His work is formed from a collection of memories, photographs, and experiences that emerge on the canvas through his energetic brush strokes. Dynamic curves and strong shadows add to the power that emanates from each natural form. Godly captures the peaceful essence of each mountain in his paintings and the sizes range from very small to enormous—just like the many land formations that he depicts. (source).
Black Scalpel Cityscapes is the latest series by renowned UK artist Damien Hirst. These canvases are collages of steel surgical instruments and found metal scraps on black paint. Portrayed from a bird’s-eye view, each image casts intricate metropolitan systems and patterns into sharp, shiny relief. The series plays with themes of repetition, order, death, surgery, sterility and precision and was inspired by contemporary warfare’s “surgical strikes” and “surgical bombing” tactics, which pinpoint targets using remote aerial surveillance and mapping. (source).