Climate Change Hopes and Fears: A Visual Discussion

Climate Change Hopes and Fears: A Visual Discussion
Curated by Montana Black

On display online beginning August 6, 2020.
View the Curator’s Talk with Montana Black at the bottom of this page.

This exhibition centers on the subject of climate change. Participating artists explore their connection to the environment and visually express their hopes and/or fears for the future of our planet and its species. Each artist considers the effects of an environment that is irrevocably altered by human caused climate change. Featured artists: Montana Black, Elizabeth Blau, Diane Bush, Denise Duarte, Laurie Hill Gibb, Kathleen Nathan, Marian Rasfeld, and Lance Smith.

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Gallery East Wall

Elizabeth Blau

Dust & Scratches
Acrylic on Canvas

Laurie Hill Gibb

Salty Resting Ground
Fabric Diptych

Original fabric diptych piece. 30”w x 40”h
Price: $800

The oceans hold the potential to help solve some of the major issues of climate change. However, they also are sending signals that show the peril we face because we have failed to act quickly to reduce our carbon footprint. Impacts are felt in coastal and marine ecosystems, fisheries, communities vulnerable to rising water levels, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, shifting currents and increasing weather volatility, and ocean chemistry. The ocean is sending a strong message, including stop polluting us with your single use plastics that endanger the oceans’ creatures and all humanity.

Profits from the sale of this piece will go to The Ocean Foundation.

Gallery South Wall

Diane Bush

Tornadoes
Microphotography

Diane Bush

Body of Water
Microphotography

Diane Bush

Global Swarming #1
Microphotography

Diane Bush

It Could Happen Tomorrow
Microphotography

Diane Bush

Global Swarming #2
Microphotography

Diane Bush

One Day
Microphotography

Diane Bush

Lone Shark
Microphotography

Diane Bush

Sunny
Microphotography

Gallery West Wall

Marian Rasfeld

Reflections
Mixed Found and Recycled Materials

It can be hard to fully grasp all the negative effects that some human behavior has had on our environment. I fear the issue is so huge, people may think it’s too big to tackle. What can one person do?

My hope is to remind people to be thoughtful about how they use and dispose of materials. You can’t recycle everything, but you can recycle some things, and if every person on earth did small good things, it would have a big effect.

In this 3-D hanging artwork, “Reflection”, a whimsical ocean scene was created using many different recycled and reused materials, including plastic bottles, fabric remnants and paper scraps. Some reflective material is included, in the hope that viewers might reflect on how they can make small changes to make things better. If we all do this, we can reduce the amount of plastic that harms animals in the ocean, or reduce the materials that end up in landfills.

There are challenges to creating art using these unconventional materials. Sometimes the materials don't behave like you imagined. Often what you try just doesn’t work - aesthetically or practically. It’s a challenge to transform these materials into something different, or beautiful, or fun. Working with recycled materials takes trial and error, learning more with every problem solved, every challenge met. It’s a good way to learn to look at things in a new way, and try to express something in the process.

Denise R. Duarte

Terra Las Vegas (fragment)
Mixed Media

Terra Las Vegas is the visual translation of the effects of water and wind, nature’s tools that shape & form the earth. Our valley, with its jagged knife edged fault block mountains to its alluvial fans, is a testament to erosion.

Las Vegas was centered in this valley, not by chance, but by human design based on the need for access to life sustaining water in the Mojave desert.

Water is the story of the west, it journeys from the mountains in Colorado to Lake Mead and then onto the Pacific. It has been our story from the beginning...it is our story now...it will be our story in the future. Water will shape the community’s size and its residents in many ways.

Terra Las Vegas was an unrealized public art proposal for a high relief sculptural mural over 1100 square feet. This fragment is a just a small selection.

Satellite imagery specifically requested from the United States Geological Survey of the Colorado River’s source to Las Vegas, Nevada including the river’s watershed, was overlaid with data maps of annual precipitation, vegetation and temperature ranges. A pattern map was created and then sculpted by re-articulating the geology into dimensional high relief sculpture. Glazes were selected for their reactive properties based upon the surface dimension and interaction to each other.

The result blurs one’s perception of the work. Is it depicting surface water or landscape? That depends upon the vantage point. The inter-relatedness and inter-dependency of water and earth challenges us to appreciate our environment and to protect the the watershed of our limited, but essential life force, water.

Dimensions: 17.5” x 31” 3.5”

Materials; Ceramic, Grout, Mortar, Board

2011

Lance Smith

Regineration Not Rebirth Lavandula
Oil on Canvas

Gallery North Wall

Montana Black

Blessed Unrest
Oil on Canvas

Kathleen Nathan
Adirondack Moments

Short visual meditations on looking and listening to the sights and sounds of the home and landcape in the Adirondack Mountains, NY.

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Hear from the artists about their work in the videos below.

Montana Black is a Las Vegas artist, environmental advocate, and the curator of "Climate Change Hopes and Fears: A Visual Discussion" as part of the Nevada Humanities Exhibition Series.

Montana Black Artist Statement

Laurie Hill Gibb Artists Statement

Diane Bush Artist Statement

Elizabeth Blau Artist Statement

Marian Rasfeld Artist Statement

Denise Duarte Artist Statement

Lance Smith Artist Statement

Kathleen Nathan Artist Statement