Justin Brice Guariglia
Justin Brice Guariglia is an American visual and conceptual artist known for examining the relationship between humans and the natural world.
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 responds to and reflects on the Anthropocene, the name given to our current geological period, in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
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.
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.
Among other awards, Guariglia is a recipient of the 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.
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.
In 2018, Sotheby's called Guariglia "one of the most prominent cultural figures working to address climate change."
Guariglia is represented by Brussels, Belgium based gallery Maruani Mercier.
Exhibitions, projects and collaborations
''venice biennale''
"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 includes 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.
''reduce speed now!''
Commissioned by Somerset House, "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 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.
''we are the asteroid''
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." 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, Chicago, Aspen, Houston.''Climate Signals''
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.Climate Signals was reviewed by The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, among others.
Puerto Rico
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.''After Ice App''
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.''EARTH WORKS: Mapping the Anthropocene''
Guariglia's solo exhibition 'EARTH WORKS: Mapping the Anthropocene' debuted at the Norton Museum of Art 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.''Hyperobject''
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.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.Beginning in 2016, Guariglia joined with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist and OMG mission principal investigator Josh Willis as an artist collaborator.