Description
Book SynopsisBurko’s scientifically informed abstractions extend the Romantic sublime to the era of climate catastrophe Painter, photographer and climate activist Diane Burko (born 1945) has long been a prominent advocate for art’s role in addressing climate change. While continuing to engage the traditions of landscape painting, her increasingly abstract and large-scale images are layered with visual and scientific information about the urgent challenges posed to the planet. This volume presents Burko’s large-scale paintings and serial groupings, including her never-before-exhibited, 56-foot-long World Map series, which addresses glacier and coral reef changes across the globe. Also featured are Burko’s videos and Lenticulars, which employ melting and flowing imagery to express the concept of climate change over time. The book features more than 120 color illustrations; a new statement by the artist on the evolving nature of her studio practice; essays by each of the curators, distinguished art historians Mary D. Garrard and Norma Broude; and an essay by the environmental author and activist Bill McKibben.
Trade ReviewIt can be said that Seeing Climate Change and all of [Diane] Burko’s work since 2006 can be summed up by the quotation attributed to Thomas Lovejoy, a conservation botanist, which she has chosen to display at the entrance to her exhibition: 'the most effective alert to the threat of climate change is likely to come from the world of art rather than of science, because art has such an extraordinary way of cutting across human society.' -- Susan Hoffman * Artspell *
[Bill] McKibben rightly sees a need for artists, poets, musicians, and other creatives to take on what he describes as 'the fight of our lifetimes.' Burko has heeded that call to arms. -- Susan Isaacs * Artblog *
[Diane] Burko’s art is about us — rather, about the environmental disaster we are all spiraling into. The title of her retrospective, curated by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, is Seeing Climate Change. The curators could just as well have called it Feeling Climate Change, for Burko’s images of melting glaciers and dying coral reefs are not just pictorially impressive; they have strong emotional impact. -- Carter Ratcliff * Hyperallergic *
