Exit Art presents Ecoaesthetic, the first exhibition of SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics) to be mounted in Exit Art’s main gallery. In keeping with SEA’s mission to present artworks that address socio-environmental concerns – and to unite artists, scholars, scientists and the public in discussion on these issues – Ecoaesthetic, through the work of nine international photographers, approaches the mystery of beauty in the natural and built environment, which can be destructive or utopian.

Ecoaesthetic will focus on photography of land where the tragedy of the image becomes the aesthetic of the environment, and not just the beauty of the landscape. The artists in this exhibition do not have a passive engagement with the environment; rather, they seek out beautiful and tragic images to emphasize the human impact on fragile ecosystems, to elucidate our relationship to nature, and to visualize the violence of natural disasters.

In conjunction with Ecoaesthetic, Exit Art will also create a collective “artists terrarium” in its two ground floor windows facing 36th Street and 10th Avenue. For this project, artists have been invited to bring a plant and a photo of themselves with the plant to Exit Art, in order to contribute to a communal garden that gives a presence to the local environmental movement.

Participating artists:

Edward Burtynsky (Canada) Mitch Epstein (USA) Anthony Hamboussi (USA) Chris Jordan (USA) Christopher LaMarca (USA) Sze Tsung Leong (USA) David Maisel (USA) Susannah Sayler/The Canary Project (USA) Jo Syz (UK)

Curated by Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo with Herb Tam and Lauren Rosati