Eco-Urgency: Now or Never

by Bartholomew F. Bland, Deborah Yasinsky, Lehman College Art Gallery

Co-organized by Wave Hill and Lehman College Art Gallery, " Now or Never" documents the aritsts in the Lehman College Art Gallery venue of the exhibition, and 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. 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. Artists at Lehman College Art 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. 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 Yasinnksy. The curatorial concept for the exhibition was initiated with Jennifer McGregor.

88 pages

Published January 1, 2021