ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II Exhibition to Open at the National Museum of Wildlife Art

The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) will open the exhibition ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II on Saturday, May 25, 2024, in the Changing Visions, Bison, and King Galleries. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II is a traveling museum exhibition produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C. This exhibition strives to recognize, document, and share the work of leading contemporary artists who chose to focus on global and local environmental issues. It also aims to heighten public awareness and concern about the intentional or unintentional consequences of human action or inaction through the power of art. The exhibition will be on view at NMWA through August 25, 2024.

To produce ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II, Exhibition Curator David Wagner, PhD, drew upon a diverse range of artists whose works are hard-hitting and propel the Environmental Movement in the age we live in. Many of these artists, like Robert Bateman, Britt Freda, Leo Osborne, Kent Ullberg, and Bart Walter, are also represented in the Museum’s permanent collection. Others, like Sayaka Ganz, Jeff Frost, and Karen Hackenberg, will be exhibited here for the first time. “The subject matter of ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II is serious and serves as a reminder of the damage inflicted on the environment over centuries,” says Dr. Tammi Hanawalt, NMWA’s Curator of Art. “However, I also think the exhibit provides us a way to look at past occurrences and reflect on the positive changes that have also happened.” Hanawalt will incorporate several works from the Museum’s permanent collection to augment the exhibition.

Historically, art has depicted nature in its glory, often in beautiful, pristine conditions. The 60+ paintings, photographs, prints, installations, and sculptures in ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II differ because they deal with ominous environmental issues ranging from the implications of unabated resource development, industrial scale consumption, and climate change to oil spills, the perils of nuclear energy, drought, wildfires, and diminishing water resources, all of which impact people and the other inhabitants that populate the planet today. Exhibiting artist Britt Freda says, “It is my hope that the paintings evoke contemplative curiosity and raw, intangible lingering. For what is it to see that we are all connected by circular patterns of propagation, regeneration, evolution and death? What is it to stand in the knowing that, alive, we share a place indivisible from our natural environment or from each other? Do we proceed differently?”’

While the exhibition officially opens at NMWA on May 25, the public can enjoy early access during a sneak peek of the exhibit from 11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on Friday, May 24. Hanawalt will give the attendees a first look at this exciting exhibition. Stephen Gorman, an exhibiting artist, will be in attendance to speak about his work. This event is free to Museum members and included in the cost of general admission.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II is generously sponsored at NMWA by Thomas and Elizabeth Grainger Family Charitable Fund, Leslye & David Hardie, Jane & Chuck Kusek, Beedee Ladd, Anne & Michael Moran, Sue Cedarholm & Kent Nelson, Bill Newton, Annette & Noah Osnos, Ellen & Peter Safir, Caroline & Ken Taylor, and Halloran, Farkas, and Kittila LLC.