Copyright 2023 by M. Annenberg. The book author and each artist here retains sole copyright to their contributions to this book. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without prior permission in writing from M. Annenberg and the individual artists.
ISBN: 9798873901173
Catalog designed by Karen M. Gutfreund, www.KarenGutfreund.com, @karengutfreundart
Cover designed by Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro, @rhermelyndisilvestro
Biophilia; In Excelsis , is an art exhibition that focuses on the theme of our sacred ecosystems, including oceans and forests, and their imminent transformation due to increased global warming. The exhibit brings together 22 artists who represent different cultural backgrounds, generations and geographic locations, who explore the concept of Biophilia, the love of life.
The artists of Biophia; In Excelsis dwell in the sacred apprehension of the divine in the life forms that draw us to them. We are in relationship with the spiritual presence that transcends the objects and beings that surround us the life forms of trees, of water, of sky and of the myriad creatures of the forests and the fields. As Thomas Berry writes, “that numinous presence whence all things come into being.”1
We are children of the Big Bang. The atoms, dust and fire that created our universe flow through our blood and bones. Berry has written that “We now live not so much in a cosmos as in a cosmogenesis; that is, a universe ever coming into being.”2 We are on a journey to wholeness, to recovery, to a new world born on the ashes of a heedless selfish and destructive one. Painter Noreen Dean Dresser writes, “My work’s focal point is the divine tension with the destruction we have wrought. What sound does a tree utter when the fires are near?”
As we observe our ecosystems in free fall wildfires consuming billions of living beings in Australia, the loss of a billion sea creatures off the coast of Vancouver, atmospheric rivers and rain bombs crushing whole towns in streams of endless water, while rivers dried up on three continents last summer; the Yangtze, the Rhine and the Colorado we are left to wonder how it came to this, a Judeo-Christian society based on the ten commandments, with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam all professing a love for creation.
Pope Francis has written of the despoiling of our given paradise, “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.”3 We see the degradation of our acidified and de-oxygenated oceans, clearly documented in the artwork of Krisanne Baker, Danielle Eubank and Lois Bender.
Have we lost this sense of the sacred so clearly understood by hunter-gatherer societies? Chief Seattle, in 1852, said “ Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.”4
The impending extinction of species including fish, reptiles, insects and mammals is addressed in the artwork of Angela Manno, and Noreen Dean Dresser. Manno quotes Berry as saying, “there is [liable] not to be a blade of grass unless it is accepted, protected and fostered by the human.” Watercolorist, Lois Bender is inspired by Pratt’s hymn, “The song of the sea, once melodious is dying, that song is essential, the calling of home.”5
Does nature embody God or is God embodied in Nature? These questions were addressed by Spinoza, considered heretical in his time. He stated, “God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things. All things which are, are in God. Besides God, there can be no substance, that is, nothing in itself external to God.”6
The artists of Biophilia the love of life, in excelsis in the most high, bring their meditations on the natural world into the realm of creative expression. We ask the audience to find the sacred in our forests, our water, our multitude of species. Rather than through an organized religion, we must seek a new connectivity, an ecospirituality that resides in the manifested world, that we are ordained to save. Art is more than an accumulation of colors and shapes. Art transcends the objects that it engages with through the medium of spirit. Art communicates joy, stillness, passion, and grief, in the living exchange from soul to soul, through perception a mysterious process. It is through the transmission and apprehension of a spiritual essence through the medium of color, space and form, that art is relevant in the quest for the transformation of our society.
Photographer, Suzanne Theodora White, documenting the aftermath of storms, writes on her web-site, “Living in the Anthropocene era I see it as a chance to challenge the nature of our connection to the natural world. My journey embraces a yearning and hope for reconciliation and healing.”
Berry has said, “We no longer hear the voice of the rivers, the mountains, or the sea. The trees and meadows are no longer intimate modes of spirit presence.”7 This sense of absence is rectified in this exhibit. We do hear. The wanton and short sighted destruction of our forests in addressed in the artwork of Diane Burko, Janet Culbertson, Kathy Levine, Babs Reingold, Cristian Pietrapiana, Suzanne Theodora White, Lisa Reindorf and M. Annenberg. Painter Eleanor Goldstein and photographer DJ Spooky examine our disappearing cryosphere. The plastic pollution strangling our oceans and the microplastics now falling from the sky are acknowledged in the sculpture of Walter Brown, Simone Spicer and Steven Siegel. Susan Hoffman Fishman examines sinkholes forming around the Dead Sea. Ann Shapiro addresses rising sea levels. Cameron Davis deconstructs our warming planet. Mankind’s alienation from all that sustains us in the natural world is seen in the work of Elisa Pritzker.
May this art function as the healing cries of the shaman, calling forth the spirits to heal the wounded and the sick. May it be our mission to help bring about an “Ecozoic era” coined by Thomas Berry, to create a new paradigm for a society devoted to the well being of all species, both human and non-human.
1 Thomas Berry, The Great Work, Our Way Into The Future, (New York, Three Rivers Press, 1999), 49.
2 Ibid., 26.
3 Pope Francis, Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home, Encyclical Letter, (Rome, Italy, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2015), 7.
4 Donald P. St John, Ecological Spirituality; It’s History and Meaning, (Los Angeles, CA, ICUS XVII Proceedings, 1988), 1115.
5 Andrew Pratt, (London, England, Stainer & Bell Ltd., c. 2021)
6 Paul Harrison, Spinoza – pantheist, World Pantheism: Revering the Universe, Caring for Nature, Celebrating Life, 2004, www.pantheism.net/paul/history/spinoza.htm, Accessed February 2023.
7 Thomas Berry, The Great Work, Our Way Into The Future, (New York, Three Rivers Press, 1999), 17.
How may art support a wholistic vision of the natural world? That question drives the artists in this exhibition. They are inspired by biophilia, literally the love of life, and draw on developments in environmental science, biology, politics and media to help us understand the interconnections that make up the web of life. Aware that facts alone are often insufficient to persuade a jaded public to act, these artists present their visions using some of art’s most potent tools, among them beauty, metaphor, symbolism and visual poetry.
They take a variety of approaches. Some journey to remote areas to investigate the impact of climate change on sensitive ecosystems. In the service of her dazzling paintings, Danielle Eubank has sailed every ocean on the planet. Eleanor Goldstein bears witness to the shrinking of the arctic glaciers. DJ Spooky delves into the environmental politics of Antarctica. Diane Burko reflects on the climate science surrounding glaciers and the Amazon Rain forest.
Such works remind us of the fragility of the conditions that make life possible. This is seconded by artists who warn of the consequences of environmental inaction. M. Annenberg uses a variety of visual metaphors to remind us that we are Sledding Down a Slippery Slope. Janet Culbertson pictures the dire effects of industrial overdevelopment. Noreen Dean Dresser evokes a biblical parable to address our disregard for natural limitations. Lisa Reindorf creates vivid paintings that evoke the clash between development and ecology. Ann Shapiro creates mournful beauty from the changing weather patterns of an increasingly inhospitable world.
Artists here also offer acts of mourning. Elisa Pritzker visualizes our Isolation and Disconnection from Nature. Babs Reingold and Kathy Levine memorialize trees lost to manmade disasters and deliberate destruction. Angela Manno makes icons of endangered species. Suzanne Theodora White creates environmentally charged momento moris.
Other artists hone in on the irresponsibility of consumer culture, often using its products as art materials. Walter Brown transforms his own plastic waste into sculptures. Steven Siegel creates public monuments of discarded newspapers, plastic bottles and cans. Simone Spicer references sea melt with an igloo composed of plastic bottles. Cristian Pietrapiana makes collages that critique mass consumption.
And finally, artists celebrate the natural beauty that is slipping away but may yet be restored. Susan Hoffman Fishman documents the unsettling radiance of sinkholes in the Dead Sea. Lois Bender evokes the allure of endangered coral reef gardens. Cameron Davis’s layered paintings suggest the interweavings of natural ecosystems. The luminous paintings of Krisanne Baker celebrate the environmental role of marine phytoplankton.
In the end all these approaches reinforce each other. They serve as calls to action and reminders of aesthetic and spiritual traditions that counter the madness of Western culture’s human-centric vision.
M. Annenberg
Krisanne Baker
Lois Bender
Walter Brown
Diane Burko
Janet Culbertson
Cameron Davis
Noreen Dean Dresser
Danielle Eubank
Susan Hoffman Fishman
Eleanor Goldstein
Kathy Levine
Angela Manno
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Cristian Pietrapiana
Elisa Pritzker
Lisa Reindorf
Babs Reingold
Ann Shapiro
Steven Siegel
Simone Spicer
Suzanne Theodora White
The Root Amidst Good and Evil No. 1, 2017-19
Wood, charcoal, pencil on paper, fire, wood panel, matches, 20 x 24 inches
Isolation and Disconnection from Nature, 2022, Archival photography, 25.75 x 33 inches
Study
Babs Reingold
M. Annenberg New York mannenberg.com @m.annenberg
Krisanne Baker Maine krisannebaker.com @bakerkrisanne
Lois Bender New York loisbenderart.com @loisbenderart
Walter Brown New York walterbrownart.com @walterbrown390
Diane Burko Pennsylvania dianeburko.com @dianeburko
Janet Culbertson New York janetculbertson.com @janet.culbertson
Cameron Davis Vermont camerondavisstudio.com @camidvt
Noreen Dean Dresser New York noreendeandresser.com @noreendeandresser
Danielle Eubank California danielleeubank.com @eubankart
Susan Hoffman Fishman Connecticut susanhoffmanfishman.com @susanhoffmanfishman
Eleanor Goldstein New York eleanorgoldsteinart.com @eleanorgoldsteinart
Kathy Levine New York kathylevineart.com @kathylevine1
Angela Manno New York angelamanno.com @angelamannofineart
Cristián Pietrapiana New York pietrapiana.net @cristianpietrapiana
Elisa Pritzker New York elisapritzker.com @elisapritzker
Lisa Reindorf Massachusetts lareindorf.com @reindorfstudio
Babs Reingold Florida babsreingold.com @babsreingold
Ann R. Shapiro New York annrshapiro.com @shapiro.ann
Steven Siegel New York stevensiegel.net @stevensiegelstudio
Simone Spicer Pennsylvania simonespicer.com @simspicer
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky New York djspooky.com @djspooky_official
Suzanne Theodora White Maine stwhite.com @shepherdess1