Zaria Forman - Fellsfjara, Iceland
Fellsfjara, Iceland
ZARIA FORMAN
SOLO EXHIBITION
MARCH 14, 2024-MAY 4, 2024
Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York presents Fellsfjara, Iceland—an exhibition of new, large-scale pastel drawings by Zaria Forman. Named for the location of a glacial lagoon on Iceland’s southeastern coast, this exhibition features studies of polar ice that have accumulated on a black sand beach. In magnifying the intricate details of the melting ice, Forman reflects the grandeur and fragility of the Arctic terrain in a warming climate.
For two decades, Zaria Forman has traveled the world to bear witness to melting ice and rising sea levels. She meticulously documents the imprint of these forces on rapidly-evolving landscapes, using photo and video to inform highly detailed pastel drawings that convey the urgency of climate change.
During her trips to Fellsfjara, Forman encountered ancient, compressed ice with brilliant clarity, revealing unprecedented character and complexity. The work in this exhibition amplifies these details, each crack, bubble and distortion carrying the narrative of the ice’s journey from its prehistoric formation to today.
In close-up views of glacial ice set against the velvety richness of churning Arctic waters and black sand, these works add to Forman’s career-long contemplation of light and ice; of humanity and nature; of time spent and time left. Forman offers a nuanced clarion call, encouraging viewers to notice, appreciate and protect the earth’s most vulnerable landscapes.
Zaria Forman documents climate change with pastel drawings. She travels to remote regions of the world to collect images and inspiration for her work, which is exhibited worldwide. She has flown with NASA on several Operation IceBridge missions over Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic Canada. She was featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, PBS, and BBC. She delivered a TEDTalk, and spoke at Amazon, Google, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, exhibited in Banksy’s Dismaland, and was the artist-in-residence aboard the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica. Forman curated the first ever, permanent, polar art exhibitions aboard Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Endurance and the National Geographic Resolution. Her works have appeared in publications such as Vogue, The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, and the Smithsonian Magazine. Forman currently works and resides in upstate New York, and is represented by Winston Wächter Fine Art in New York, NY, and Seattle, WA.
The gallery will be hosting a panel discussion with Zaria Forman, Artist; Jen Schwartz, Scientific American; Samantha M. Thompson, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; and Karl Burkart, One Earth, on April 27th at 2pm at the gallery.
