Eco-Urgency: Now or Never

When

August 28 – December 5, 2021 All Day

Where

Glyndor Gallery

Price

Free

with admission to the grounds

Co-organized by Wave Hill and Lehman College Art Gallery, Eco-Urgency: Now or Never is a two-part exhibition showing the varied responses to our current ecological crisis by artists working across wide-ranging practices. Now, the first part of the exhibition, on view at Wave Hill, brings together artists looking at the urgency of the present moment, raising awareness through a holistic approach to understanding social, political and environmental concerns. Or Never, the second part of the project, to be presented at Lehman College Art Gallery starting December 4, is both speculative and reflective, examining the echoing cycles of history that have shaped and led us to our current moment, alongside possible and causal futures.

Both parts of the exhibition investigate a series of overlapping thematic inquiries that preoccupy artists today. Politics and the Land explores the impact of political and economic policies related to natural resources and the social health inequities made worse by unequal distribution of resources. Decentering Human Experience emphasizes the importance of nonhuman perspectives and impresses the need to rethink humans as the primary species. The theme of Stewardship focuses on the urge to collect, archive and preserve. Artists imagining apocalyptic climate catastrophe are explored through Depicting Imminent Change proposing ideas to mitigate the resulting impacts of ongoing environmental changes. Finally, Grief looks at a growing body of work that is mournful, elegiac and prompts questions about what it means to memorialize that which is lost or about to be lost.

The artists in Eco-Urgency rely on research, critical analysis, observation and direct action to create objects, videos and performances to encourage public engagement and deepen awareness of this critical moment. There are no easy answers to this crisis, but these artists provide a series of guideposts and pathways for moving forward.

Eco-Urgency: Now or Never is co-organized by Wave Hill and Lehman College Art Gallery, The City University of New York, and is curated by Bartholomew Bland, Gabriel de Guzman, Jesse Bandler Firestone, Eileen Jeng Lynch, and Deborah Yasinsky. The curatorial concept for the exhibition was initiated with Jennifer McGregor.

Artists at Wave Hill: Allora & Calzadilla, Tatiana Arocha, Hannah Chalew, Lionel Cruet, Nicky Enright, Susan Rowe Harrison, Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, Mary Mattingly, Alison Moritsugu, Alexis Rockman, SPURSE, Candace Thompson, Natalie Collette Wood, Suné Woods and Sasha Wortzel.

Artists at Lehman College Art Gallery: Vanessa Albury, Samantha Box, Nicky Enright, Rachel Frank, Alicia Grullón, Alison Janae Hamilton, Mary Mattingly, Alexis Rockman, Francesco Simeti, SPURSE, Will Wilson, Natalie Collette Wood and Ken + Julia Yonetani.

The second part of the exhibition, Or Never, will be on view at Lehman College Art Gallery from December 4, 2021 through April 23, 2022.

Eco Urgency Ibghy and Lemmens Moritsugu Allora and Calzadilla Mattingly Chalew wh 097

Installation view. Clockwise from left: Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, “The Violence of Care”; Allora & Calzadilla, “The Great Silence”, text written in collaboration with Ted Chiang, courtesy of the artists and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels; Mary Mattingly, “Along the Lines of Displacement”; Alison Moritsugu, “Talisman”; Hannah Chalew, “Embodied Emissions”. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Clockwise from left: Alexis Rockman, “White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus (Hook Pond, East Hampton, NY)”; “White Oak Quercus alba (Marsh House, East Hampton, NY)”; “Striped Bass Marone saxatilis (Town Line Beach, Wainscott, NY)”; “Spiny Dogfish Squalus acanthias (Coney Island Beach, Brooklyn, NY)”; “Muskrat Ondatra zibethicus (Swindlers Cove, Harlem River, Bronx)”; “Conger Eel Congeroceanica (59th St Bridge, Manhattan Side)”; “Goldenrod Solidago virgaurea canadensis (Canarsie Pier, Brooklyn)”; “Spring Peeper Pseudacris crucifer (Vineyard Field Pond, Bridgehampton, NY)”; “Florida Manatee Trichechus manatus latirostris (59th St Bridge, Manhattan Side)”; “American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliates (Hither Hills State Park, Montauk, NY)”; “Raccoon Procyon lotor (Georgica Pond, Wainscott, NY)”; Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, “The Violence of Care”; Alison Moritsugu, “Talisman”. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Allora & Calzadilla, “The Great Silence”, text written in collaboration with Ted Chiang. Courtesy of the artists and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Suné Woods, “Suite Number Seven”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Clockwise from left: Tatiana Arocha, “Lo que cuesta una Linea de coca (The Cost of One Line of Coke)”; Tatiana Arocha, “Alba”; Tatiana Arocha, “Con oferta y demanda (With Supply and Demand)”; Sasha Wortzel, “Somewhere Between”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Clockwise from left: Candace Thompson, “Food Web Mind Map”; Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, “The Violence of Care”; SPURSE, Block Ecology and Flourish LAB, in collaboration with Jack Henning, PhD, Renuka P. Sankaran, PhD, Steven Conaway, Bryan Williams and Jezreel Deseo, “More than us thriving where we are (not yet)”. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, “The Violence of Care”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. SPURSE, Block Ecology and Flourish LAB, in collaboration with Jack Henning, PhD, Renuka P. Sankaran, PhD, Steven Conaway, Bryan Williams and Jezreel Deseo, “More than us thriving where we are (not yet)”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Susan Rowe Harrison, “There is a crack in everything”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Nicky Enright, “What on Earth? (Have You Done)”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Natalie Collette Wood, “Swallowed By Nature”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. Mary Mattingly, “Along the Lines of Displacement”. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

Installation view. SPURSE, Block Ecology and Flourish LAB, in collaboration with Jack Henning, PhD, and Renuka P. Sankaran, PhD, Department of Biological Sciences Lehman College, City University of New York; Steven Conaway, Assistant Director of Horticulture, Wave Hill; Bryan Williams and Jezreel Deseo, “More than us thriving where we are (not yet)”. Courtesy of the collectives. Photo: Stefan Hagen.

During the summer of 2020, Wave Hill presented a series of nine virtual programs to introduce the themes within the Eco-Urgency exhibition. Learn more about these programs.

Eco-Urgency: Now or Never at Wave Hill follows the related 2018 exhibitions Avifauna: Birds and Habitat and Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator, and the 2017 exhibition Jackie Brookner: Of Nature.