Fine Art

What can fine art do?

The term "fine art" captures a wide array of mediums: sculpture, photography, video, installation, illustration, ceramics, painting, digital art, textile, and so many more. Each medium allows the artist a unique way of responding to the climate crisis. The list below, featuring a handful of notable environmental artists, is by no means comprehensive. Please continue to seek out fine artists from all disciplines and add them to our forum page!

Sculpture

Jenny Kendler (1980- ) is a Jewish interdisciplinary artist whose sculptures in particular have made significant statements about the climate crisis. Her sculpture Birds Watching (2018-19) was created using images of the eyes of 100 climate-threatened bird species.

Ai Wei Wei (1957- ) is a Chinese-born documentarian and sculpture artist. His sculpture series, Roots (2019), involves creatively casting and displaying the roots of the endangered Pequi Vinagreiro tree, native to Brazil.

Tan Zi Xi (also known as MessyMsxi) (1984/5?- ) is a Singaporean illustrator and sculptor whose 2016 work Plastic Ocean situated visitors in a facsimile of the Great Pacific Garbage.

Photography

Australian artist Katherine Boland (1957- ) has lately been inspired by the 2019-20 fires that rampaged southern Australia, and now incorporates fire into her art-making. Boland also works with paint and digital media.

British-born Benjamin West (1974- ) is a collagist and photographer whose current work explores the crux of flora and machinery.

Andy Goldsworthy (1956- ) is a British artist well-known for his photography and sculpture of natural elements in their respective landscapes. The natural transience of his pieces over time is captured through photography.

Other

Eco-Art artist Agnes Denes (1931- ) creates vast installations in the natural world. One such installation was Wheatfield - a Confrontation (1982), for which she planted a 2-acre field of wheat in the middle of New York City.

American interdisciplinary artist Mary Mattingly (1978- ) creates large art pieces out of recycled materials & trash to display consumption. Her work Swale (2016- ), is an edible landscape floating on a barge through New York City.

Dr. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (1982- ) is a British multidisciplinary artist who uses technology to creatively reframe the ways in which we visualize and engage with the natural world.

Olafur Eliasson (1967- ) is an Icelandic-Danish multidisciplinary artist who was appointed as a "UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" in 2019 for his artistic contributions.