Surroundings: Video Encounters of Nature

Through January 26, 2025

According to the United Nations, humans have been the main cause of climate change since the 1800s. As atmospheric shifts continue to manifest extreme weather conditions, interventions from local to international levels aim to target and halt this ecological crisis. Yet, despite these efforts, individuals aged 16 - 25 across the world have reported levels of climate anxiety that negatively impact their daily lives or outlooks on the future. Organized by emerging curators raised in an environmentally conscious world, Surroundings: Video Encounters of Nature links three contemporary artists creating environmental portraits through moving imagery and film.

Beginning with Donna Conlon’s From the Ashes (De las cenizas), a closeup encounter with a hummingbird reminds viewers of life’s fragility and humans’ impact on the natural world. In Carolina Caycedo’s Esto no es Agua/This Is Not Water, Las Damas waterfall in southern Colombia comes to life in a kaleidoscopic dance, restoring a sense of agency to the body of water. The exhibition concludes with Nadia Huggins’ Circa no future, an interrogation of the notions of displacement and free will through the marine environment. Presented in eight-week-long installations, Surroundings engulfs viewers in textures, movement, and forces witnessed in nature, creating a cinematic experience for all audiences.

JULY 27 – SEPTEMBER 22:
DONNA CONLON

SEPTEMBER 28 – NOVEMBER 24:
CAROLINA CAYCEDO

NOVEMBER 30 – JANUARY 26, 2025:
NADIA HUGGINS

Curated by Sarah Bass, Curatorial Research Associate; Pamela Solares, Museum Education and Public Programs Coordinator, Coral Springs Museum of Art (Former Sophie Davis Fellow for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access, Norton Museum of Art); Tiera Ndlovu, Curatorial Manager, Madison Square Park Conservancy (Former Curatorial Research Associate, Norton Museum of Art).

Organized by the Norton Museum of Art.

Support for this exhibition was provided by the Sydelle and Arthur I. Meyer Endowment Fund.