Justin Brice Guariglia

Justin Brice Guariglia is an American artist and photographer whose work looks at the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Justin Brice Guariglia
Born
Justin Brice Guariglia

Maplewood, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWake Forest University, Capital Normal University
Known forvisual art, conceptual art, photography, sculpture, video
AwardsNational Endowment for the Arts;
Howard Foundation Fellow at Brown University; New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow
Websitewww.guariglia.com

Guariglia has frequently partnered with scientists, poets and philosophers to produce work that enables a greater understanding of climate change and the ecological crisis.

Guariglia's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Somerset House, the Norton Museum of Art, the USC Fisher Museum of Art, and The Aperture Foundation among others. Group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale, Storm King Art Center, Colby College Museum of Art, among others. In 2020, Guariglia will present his show REDUCE SPEED NOW! in the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale.

Guariglia's We Are The Asteroid I, II & III, a collaboration with the philosopher Timothy Morton, has appeared at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Storm King Art Center, Colby College Museum of Art, Anderson Ranch, Aspen Snowmass mountain, the Chicago Navy Pier & EXPO Chicago, Rice University, and the University of Northern Iowa.

Exhibition view of artwork by Justin Brice Guariglia

Guariglia participated in For Freedoms, a Super PAC started by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, which launched a show at Jack Shainman Gallery in 2016. He also created a series of unique billboards as part of "For Freedoms 50," on view in Oklahoma City, Anchorage, and Los Angeles.[1][2]

Among other awards, Guariglia is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Howard Foundation Fellow in Photography at Brown University, a New York Foundation for the Arts Finalist, and a Simons Foundation Fellow @New Lab.[3][4] [5][6]

He is concurrently the artist-in-residence at the Anchorage Museum, and a Fellow at the climate change think tank Woods Hole Research Center through 2020. [7]

In 2018, Sotheby's referred to Guariglia as "one of the most prominent cultural figures working to address climate change."[8]

Guariglia is represented by Brussels, Belgium-based gallery Maruani Mercier.[9]

Exhibitions, projects and collaborations

Venice Biennale

(2019) "Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale that Society Has the Capacity to Destroy: Mare Nostrum" curated by Phong Bui and Francesca Pietropaolo, is an official collateral event of the 58th International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition is located at the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Penitenti in the Cannaregio section of Venice during the run of the Biennale Arte, from 11 May – 24 November 2019. Guariglia's contribution included a 2-meter neon artwork, "EXXTINCTION," a play on the classic ExxonMobil logo.

"Artists Need to Create..." includes the work of 73 artists of international backgrounds whose works are in response to environmental crisis in the age of climate change, including Rirkrit Tiravanija, Jack Whitten, Dorothea Rockburne, Amy Sillman, Chuck Close, and others.[10]

REDUCE SPEED NOW!
Installation of "REDUCE SPEED NOW!," Somerset House, London

(2019) Commissioned by Somerset House,[11] "Reduce Speed Now!" brings together international perspectives on the world's ecological crisis. Using a series of large solar-powered LED signs usually seen on motorways, Guariglia foregrounds the voices of poets, philosophers, thinkers, activists, and global indigenous elders addressing our climate change, global warming, and extinction.

Contributors include 16-year-old Swedish political activist, Greta Thunberg, whose protests over the past year have mobilized students across the world and inspired thousands of young people across the UK to protest against political inaction on climate change. The text of her speech sits alongside the voices of global indigenous elders, whose lives are deeply connected to nature and the preservation of ancient human wisdom. Another sign displays the poem "Rise: From One Island to Another" by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna, from the Marshall Islands and Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) respectively. The islanders’ poem demonstrates the interdependency of the world and forms a call for action to city dwellers in the face of an environmental crisis.

Other writing includes excerpts from French philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour’s provocative publications; aphorisms written by eco-theorist Timothy Morton; and Guariglia’s compiled list of 200 years of extinct species.[12]

WE ARE THE ASTEROID

(2018–present) Guariglia's "WE ARE THE ASTEROID," a series of solar-powered LED message boards that flash eco-aphorisms, debuted at Storm King Art Center in the 2018 exhibition entitled "Indicators: Artists on Climate Change."[13] The project is part of an ongoing collaboration with eco-theorist Timothy Morton, who wrote the text for the work. Iterations of the project have appeared as public art installations in San Francisco,[14] New York City,[15] Chicago,[16] Aspen,[17] Houston.[18]

Climate Signals

(2018) Guariglia's citywide public art installation "Climate Signals" debuted September, 2018 in ten locations across the five boroughs of New York City. The project, which was presented by the Climate Museum, in conjunction with the New York City Mayor's Office, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and was designed to encourage dialogue on the issue of climate change.[19]

Climate Signals was reviewed by The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, among others.[20][21][22][23]

Puerto Rico
Justin Brice Guariglia with Ai Weiwei (L) and Walter Meyer (R) in Puerto Rico

(2017) In 2018, NBC News aired a six-minute segment documenting a trip taken by Guariglia and Ai Weiwei to Puerto Rico in December 2017. The artists traveled to the island to learn first hand about the mass migration and humanitarian crisis caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria, help install solar panels, and meet local survivors of the storms. They were guided by landscape architects Walter Meyer and Jennifer Bolstad of the firm, Local Office Landscape Architecture.[24][25]

After Ice App

(2017–present) On Earth Day 2017, Guariglia launched "After Ice", a free iOS app visualizing sea-level rise based on projections from the IPCC and NASA. Featured by Apple on the iTunes home page for Earth Day, the app received 13 million impressions in its first week. "After Ice" was created by a team of award-winning volunteers, including programming by Strange Flavour, and published by Ian Lynch Smith of SecondVerse with design support by artist Frances Segismundo.[26][27][28][29]

EARTH WORKS: Mapping the Anthropocene

(2017–present) Guariglia's solo exhibition "EARTH WORKS: Mapping the Anthropocene" debuted at the Norton Museum of Art[30] in September 2017. The museum was forced closed within hours of the show opening due to hurricane Irma, the irony of which was written about by The Washington Post. The exhibition has since traveled to the USC Fisher Museum of Art in conjunction with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The show contains works derived from source materials collected on flights with NASA, in addition to other aerial topographic images Guariglia took of agriculture and mining in the landscape.[31][32][33]

Hyperobject

(2017) New York City fashion designers Abasi Rosborough collaborated with Guariglia to create "Hyperobject," a collection based on Guariglia's work, and named after Timothy Morton's book and neologism "Hyperobjects". The clothing is cut from organic and/or deadstock fabrics that feature Guariglia's art work.[34]

NASA (2015–present)

Guariglia has frequently collaborated with scientists, philosophers, and journalists in order to forge a deeper understanding of human impact on the planet. Notably, this includes a series of seven earth science missions he flew with NASA's Operation Ice Bridge scientists beginning in 2015, documenting Greenland's rapidly changing ice sheets and sea ice. The images became source material for work that debuted in Earth Works: Mapping the Anthropocene.[35]

Beginning in 2016, Guariglia joined with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist and OMG mission principal investigator Josh Willis as an artist collaborator.[36][37]

Education

Guariglia studied Italian art history under the late art historian Terisio Pignatti in Venice, Italy, before moving to Beijing, China in 1996 to study Chinese language, culture, and history at Capital Normal University. He completed his liberal arts study at Wake Forest University in North Carolina before returning to Asia. Guariglia lived in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai over a 20-year period, working as a documentary photographer for 15 of those years. In 2015, Guariglia moved his studio back to New York City where he currently lives and works.[38]

Bibliography and press
  • The New York Times profiled Guariglia in August 2017 ahead of his solo museum show at the Norton Museum of Art.[39]
  • A critical discussion of Guariglia's work was featured in 'The Anthropocene Sublime: Justin Guariglia's Artwork,' part of "Art, Theory, and Practice in the Anthropocene," edited by Christie's Education's Julie Reiss. Eva Horn, cultural theorist from the University of Vienna, Austria, wrote the essay.[40]
  • Between 2006 and 2015 Guariglia published a total of 7 documentary photography books, with publishers such as the Aperture Foundation, Chronicle Books, and National Geographic.
  • In 2019, the Norton Museum of Art published a catalogue accompaniment of Guariglia's solo exhibition, 'Earth Works: Mapping the Anthropocene,' including an essay by Norton curator Tim Wride, and foreword by Terry Tamminen of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

References
  1. "For Freedoms - 30 June - 26 August 2016". Guariglia. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  2. "Here Are the 150 Artists Making Billboards for Every US State as Part of Hank Willis Thomas's Midterm Election Project". artnet News. October 9, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  3. https://burnaway.org/nea-announces-final-grants-2017/
  4. https://www.brown.edu/howard-foundation/about/previous-fellowship-awardees
  5. https://www.nyfa.org/Content/Show/Past-Fellows
  6. https://www.simonsfoundation.org/outreach/science-sandbox/science-sandbox-new-lab-fellowship/
  7. https://whrc.org/permafrost-art-collaboration/
  8. Morrison, Greg (November 9, 2018). "Art and the Environment: Museums Adjust to a New Climate". Museum Network. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  9. "Justin Brice Guariglia - MARUANI MERCIER". maruanimercier.com. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  10. https://venice.brooklynrail.org/
  11. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/reduce-speed-now-justin-brice-guariglia
  12. https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/reduce-speed-now-justin-brice-guariglia
  13. "Indicators: Artists on Climate Change – Storm King Art Center". stormking.org. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  14. https://ybca.org/event/we-are-the-asteroid-iii/
  15. https://untappedcities.com/2020/09/15/art-at-the-blueline-climate-art-manhattan/
  16. "WE ARE THE ASTEROID II - 15 September - 30 November 2018". Guariglia. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  17. "Artists address climate crisis in Anderson Ranch and CORE collaboration". www.aspentimes.com. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  18. "Justin Brice Guariglia: WE ARE THE ASTEROID III (2019)". Moody Center for The Arts. January 9, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  19. "Climate Signals". Climate Signals. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  20. Kormann, Carolyn (November 17, 2018). "Ask a Scientist: How to Deal with a Climate-Change Skeptic". Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via www.newyorker.com.
  21. Straaten, Laura van (August 30, 2018). "Climate Museum Sends Distress Signals to Stimulate Discussion". Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  22. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/signs-of-climate-change-pop-up-in-new-york--really/2018/09/07/5bf687bc-b1eb-11e8-a20b-5f4f84429666_story.html
  23. Milman, Oliver (September 4, 2018). "'Art can play a valuable role': climate change installations appear in New York". Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  24. "Artist Ai Weiwei's journey following refugees takes him to Puerto Rico". NBC News. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  25. https://www.localofficelandscape.com/
  26. "After Ice". App Store. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  27. "Strange Flavour Ltd". Strange Flavour Ltd. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  28. secondverse.org
  29. "TITLE". FK Segismundo. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  30. https://www.norton.org/storage/app/media/News/2017_2018_Season_Exhibitions_release_.pdf
  31. "EARTH WORKS: Mapping the Anthropocene - 5 September 2017 - 7 January 2018". Guariglia. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  32. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-change-art-exhibit-was-almost-swallowed-by-hurricane-irma/2017/09/22/1559deda-9e0f-11e7-9c8d-cf053ff30921_story.html
  33. "Earth Works: Mapping the Anthropocene". USC Fisher Museum of Art. June 7, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  34. "SS18 HYPEROBJECT". ABASI ROSBOROUGH. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  35. Loos, Ted (August 29, 2017). "A Man on an Eco-Mission in Mixed Media". Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  36. "OMG". omg.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  37. Sheets, Hilarie M. (September 16, 2016). "Art and Science Meld as NASA Announces a New Artist Collaboration". Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  38. "Terisio Pignatti". August 27, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via Wikipedia.
  39. Loos, Ted (August 29, 2017). "A Man on an Eco-Mission in Mixed Media". Retrieved March 4, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  40. https://vernonpress.com/book/492
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