Artist News

August 2 – October 27, 2024 – Roger Tory Peterson Institute – 311 Curtis Street Exd, Jamestown, NY

Art that Matters to the Planet: Clarity, explores the role of art and artists in protecting freshwater ecosystems (including lakes and ponds, rivers and streams, and freshwater wetlands) across the country, and all of the life they support (including fish, reptiles and amphibians, birds and mammals).

Artists play an important role in helping to protect our natural resources. The exhibit features artists who have partnered with environmental organizations, scientists, naturalists, and writers. With their work, they highlight the unique and fascinating worlds of freshwater ecosystems across the country.

The exhibiting artists include our Think About Water members, Basia Irland and Naoe Suzuki.

Working with artists Kaycee Colburn, Sara Baker-Michalak, and Basia Irland, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute and Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy (CWC) will invite community members to plant seeds along the bank, aiding in CWC’s efforts to protect and restore our county’s most valuable aquatic resources. Naoe Suzuki’s project Flow will invite community members to share their stories about water.

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“Water Stories: the Podcast,” produced by BioBAT Art Space and hosted by Eve Barro, offers an immersive exploration into the intricate relationship between humans and water. Each episode features engaging conversations with experts, artists, and academics who delve into aquatic themes from ecological, cultural, and scientific perspectives. The podcast accompanies BioBAT Art Space’s ongoing exhibition entitled Water Stories, amplifying the themes explored by the artists featured there. Through stories about underwater exploration, marine life, and human impact on aquatic ecosystems, listeners gain a deeper appreciation of water’s vital role in our world.

In the second episode of “Water Stories: the Podcast,” host Eve Barro speaks with artist Naoe Suzuki about her project Flow, which engages communities through shared stories of water, fostering kinship and reciprocity. Suzuki’s art explores personal and collective water relationships, revealing the environmental and cultural impacts on water. The discussion illuminates how collective storytelling and personal narratives can transform our understanding and stewardship of water.

The marine soundscape at the beginning and end of the second episode comes from the body of water at the UK/France border; acknowledging that, as of the time of recording, over 400 people have tragically lost their lives since 1999 due to the hostile immigration policies that make these waters deadly for those seeking safety.

The Podcast series is available online and in BioBAT Art Space listening room in Brooklyn until May 2025.

Sant Khalsa was awarded the 2023-24 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship (Legacy level) for her lifetime contributions to California art, environment and community. 

Sant Khalsa is a visual artist whose work derives from a mindful inquiry into critical and complex environmental issues. Her practice balances art making (photography, mixed-media sculpture, and installation), teaching, lecturing, curating, writing, mentoring, and community building. She lives and works in Joshua Tree in San Bernardino County.

Sant Khalsa’s Geothermal Field photographic works made at the Salton Sea are featured in the exhibition “Reflections on a Warming Planet” at Pasadena City College Boone Family and V Galleries in Pasadena, CA from August 26 – September 27, 2024.

Sant Khalsa curated the Getty supported PST ART: Art & Life Collide exhibition with book Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees, at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, CA, September 7 – December 29, 2024. The exhibition and book brings together artists, scientists, indigenous culture bearers, conservationists, policy makers, historians and creative writers, all focused on the plight of the Joshua tree, threatened by climate change, fire, development, industrial solar and other human impacts. 

Desert Forest focuses on the plight of the iconic Joshua tree and the vital and sensitive Mojave Desert ecosystem that supports it. The tree’s survival is threatened by climate change as well as development, wind and solar energy industries, and wildfires. In August 2020, a lightning strike ignited a fire that destroyed more than 1.3 million trees, prompting the California Fish and Game Commission to consider granting western Joshua trees protection under the California Endangered Species Act. This multidisciplinary project brings together natural history, Indigenous knowledge, public policy, conservation science, and creative works by historic and contemporary artists to spotlight the threatened tree and preservation efforts around it. From the first known photograph of a Joshua tree by Carleton Watkins to recent photographs by Cara Romero, the exhibition brings attention to the Joshua tree, current pressures on its fragile desert ecosystem, and its future viability.