In 2020 and 2021 Zea Mays Printmaking is participated in a collective global art project, Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss. Extraction is “a multimedia, multi-venue, cross-border art intervention that will investigate extractive industry in all of its forms from mining and drilling to the reckless exploitation of water, soil, trees, marine life, and other natural resources.”
The Zea Mays artist community was part of an “international art ruckus” that tackled the problem of natural resource exploitation—its forms and its consequences, including its effect on art making and human life. Artists were encouraged to use a spirited voice to speak their mind regarding political, social, and personal issues related to the overarching theme of Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss— “the suicidal consumption of the planet’s natural resources, which is the most pressing environmental issue of our time, encompassing all others, including climate change.”
Starting with Unlikely Materials Exchanges for Artists, we repurposed, plundered, rescued, recycled, traded, and appropriated materials to inspire our community of artists to create work for local and distant Green to the Extreme exhibitions. A full-throated response to the challenge of Extraction included exhibitions, workshops and programming.
Exhibitions
- Green to the Extreme at APE Gallery (Northampton. MA) in October 2020
- Rising Waters/Blazing Earth at Augusta Savage Gallery, UMASS, Amherst, September 2021