Yinka Shonibare and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith feature in 'Black Earth Rising'
Black Earth Rising explores the splendour of nature through paintings, sculptures, films, and works on paper by some of today’s most celebrated artists of African diasporic, Latin American, and Native identity.
Each of these works demonstrates a form of resisting social and environmental injustices and reclaiming connections to the natural environment against the legacy of European settlement of the New World. Organised by guest curator and renowned author Ekow Eshun, this exhibition both sheds light on the historical trajectory of today’s climate crisis and celebrates the beauty of the natural world and our ties to it.
The show takes its title from terra preta, Portuguese for “black earth,” which refers to a type of fertile soil created by ancient Indigenous civilisations in the Amazon basin thousands of years ago. Recently rediscovered by scientists, it remains more fertile than ordinary land.
Exhibiting artists include Yinka Shonibare, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Firelei Báez, Alejandro Piñeiro Bello, Teresita Fernández, Sky Hopinka, Tyler Mitchell, and Wangechi Mutu.
