Exhibition Opening: Megafauna Land Dwellers
Megafauna Land Dwellers featuring works by 27 YoungArts award winners
Curated by Naomi Fisher (1994 Visual Arts)
With the exhibition Megafauna Land Dwellers, YoungArts presents an exploration of pressing environmental issues through art created by 28 dancers, designers, photographers, visual artists and writers. Curated by Naomi Fisher (1994 Visual Arts), artist, curator and co-founder of Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI), the group exhibition highlights works that respond to vital topics such as eco-feminism, nature and wildlife conservation, artificial landscapes, activism and biodiversity.
Fisher’s artistic and curatorial practices are defined by humanity’s interaction with nature and its’ impact on the planet, as well as the inspiration natural forms have on how humans build and decorate dwellings, design functional objects and inspire art. For Megafauna Land Dwellers, these considerations are expanded into a larger and more textured dialogue through interdisciplinary and intergenerational voices.
“We are at a critical time on planet earth, the urgency to change our lifestyles to combat climate change is clear based on many scientific reports, yet not enough action to reduce carbon in the necessary timeline is underway,” says Naomi Fisher. “Sometimes there is despair, and art brings us back to a place of contemplation through visual explorations of ideas rooted in many mediums. Art enlightens our awareness of how we perceive, interact with, and rely on nature.”
YoungArts’ annual spring exhibition provides a space for an intergenerational group of artists across disciplines to present work that contemplates pressing issues from our past and present that affect our future. Invited guest artists or curators expand on the idea of conventional exhibition-making to embrace the idea of mentorship and peer-to-peer exchange between artists that are part of the YoungArts community and beyond.
Participating artists, who are all YoungArts award winners from the last 40 years are:
- Priscilla Aleman, 2009 Visual Arts & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts
- Lizette Avineri, 2007 Visual Arts
- Andie Aylsworth, 2018 Visual Arts
- Marcus Bui, 2023 Photography
- Liza Butts, 2012 Visual Arts
- Catherine Camargo, 2017 Visual Arts
- Michelle Chen, 2016 Writing
- Juan Jose Cielo, 2015 Visual Arts
- Zoe Dorado, 2023 Writing
- Mackenzie Duan, 2023 Writing
- Nicole Eisenman, 1983 Visual Arts
- Charlotte Gagliardi, 2023 Design Arts
- Ava Tiye Kinsey, 2004 Writing & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts
- Smriti Krishnan, 2012 Dance
- Olivia Le, 2023 Writing
- Michael Loveland, 1991 Visual Arts
- Jonathan Lovett, 2019 Photography
- Lilly Mitrani, 2023 Photography
- Zora Nooks, 2023 Photography
- Isabel Oliva, 2017 Visual Arts
- Lee Pivnik, 2014 Visual Arts
- Coralina Rodriguez Meyer, 2000 Visual Arts
- Vinicius de Aguiar Sanchez, 2007 Visual Arts
- Nicole Salcedo, 2006 Visual Arts
- Zoe Schweiger, 2018 Visual Arts
- Nadir Souirgi, 1994 Visual Arts
- Cornelius Tulloch, 2016 Design Arts & Visual Arts & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts
- Gabrielle Vitollo, 2008 Visual Arts
This exhibition, and all YoungArts programming, is made possible with the generous support of numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals. Please visit youngarts.org/donor-recognition for a complete list of donors.
About Naomi Fischer
Naomi Fisher, born and based in Miami, graduated with a BFA in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and since, her medium has expanded to include painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, video and site-specific installation, often in collaboration with dancers.
Since 2015 Fisher has completed a number of major public art sculptures including five permanent artworks integrated into the architecture at 2020 Salzedo for Codina Partners in Coral Gables, as well as projects for Givenchy, the Oslo Kommunes Kunstsamling, the Henry, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens, and the Underline Park.
Since 2004, Fisher has directed the W.A.G.E. certified 501c3 exhibition platform BFI (Bas Fisher Invitational). She has been the chair of the Visual Arts panel awarding and mentoring top high school art students with YoungArts; lectures and does studio visits in schools like Princeton’s architecture program, Rogaland Kunstsenter, Norway; the University of Florida’s Visual Arts Program, and the CUNY photography program.
Fisher’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Halle für Kunst, Luneburg; Kemper Museum, Kansas City; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel; Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami; and the Deste Foundation, Athens. Her work is included in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Art Boston, the Rubell Family Museum, ICA Miami, PAMM, and more.
About YoungArts
Established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison, YoungArts identifies exceptional young artists, amplifies their potential, and invests in their lifelong creative freedom. YoungArts provides space, funding, mentorship, professional development and community throughout artists’ careers. Entrance into this prestigious organization starts with a highly competitive application for talented artists ages 15–18, or grades 10–12, in the United States that is judged by esteemed discipline-specific panels of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process.
