Facing Fire: Art, Wildfire, and the End of Nature in the New West
Jundt Galleries, January 21, 2023 through May 13, 2023
This traveling exhibition is curated by Douglas McCulloh and organized by UCR ARTS: California Museum of Photography.
Fire as omen and elemental force, as metaphor and searing personal experience—these are the subjects explored by the artists of Facing Fire. In the past two decades, West Coast wildfires have exploded in scale and severity. The artists— Noah Berger, Kevin Cooley, Josh Edelson, Samantha Fields, Jeff Frost, Luther Gerlach, Christian Houge, Richard Hutter, Christoph Kapeller, Benoit Malphettes, Anna Mayer, Cody Norris, Stuart Palley, Norma I. Quintana, Justin Sullivan, and Joan Wulf—of Facing Fire bring us incendiary work from active fire lines and psychic burn zones. They face fire, sift its aftermath, and struggle with the implications.
Stuart Palley
El Portal Fire, Yosemite National Park, 2014
Dye sublimation print on aluminum
Courtesy of the artist.