NEW LANDSCAPES: KIM ABELES
Join us for a special off-site event with artist Kim Abeles and MOCA Associate Curator Rebecca Lowery.
Thursday, December 1, 2022
12:00pm–1:00pm
Stoneview Nature Center
5950 Stoneview Drive, Culver City, CA 90232
The program will begin with a viewing of two works from Abeles’s outdoor public art project Citizen Seeds, a grouping of mixed media sculptures that each portray a plant native to Southern California: sugar pine, California black oak, coast live oak, bladderpod, black walnut, and manzanita. Afterwards, Abeles will share a selection of her Smog Collectors, an ongoing series of artworks she creates by capturing the particulates in air pollution. Joined in conversation with Lowery, the pair will discuss Abeles’s practice, focusing primarily on projects that underscore her sustained commitment to environmental justice.
Capacity is limited. Space is available first-come, first-served based on RSVP. Link to RSVP here.
About Kim Abeles
Kim Abeles explores society, science literacy, feminism, and the environment, creating projects with science and natural history museums, health departments, air pollution control agencies, and National Park Service. NEA-funded projects involved a residency at the Institute of Forest Genetics; and Valises for Camp Ground in collaboration with Camp 13, a group of female prison inmates who fight wildfires. Permanent outdoor works include sculptural Citizen Seeds along the Park to Playa Trail in Los Angeles, and Walk a Mile in My Shoes, based on the shoes of the Civil Rights marchers and local activists.
Abeles has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust Fund, and her process documents are archived at the Center for Art + Environment. Her work is in public collections including Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California African American Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Kim Abeles: Smog Collectors, 1987-2020 is a survey exhibition of the environmental series, presented at CSU Fullerton (2022) and CSU Sacramento (2023). Recent publications about her projects include The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the book, Social Practice: Technologies for Change, Routledge Press (2022).
About New Landscapes
New Landscapes is a series of member events that underscores the work of artists, activists, and scholars committed to pressing ecological issues in Los Angeles and around the globe. Exploring varied responses to climate, conservation, and environmental justice, New Landscapes is guided by the mission of MOCA’s Environmental Council, the first sustainability council at a major arts museum in the United States.
New Landscapes is presented as part of an ongoing series of environmental programming in 2022 made possible by Nora McNeely Hurley and Manitou Fund, and guided by the work of the
MOCA Environmental Council.
Image credit: Kim Abeles, Dinner for Two in One Month of Smog, 2011. Smog (particulate matter) on porcelain dinnerware and linen, 27.5” x 48.5” x 38. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ken Marchionno.