This fall, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) welcomes a special guest, artist Michelle Rogers, to its offices at Columbia University’s Lamont campus. Rogers will complete a work-in-progress while just a stone’s throw away from hundreds of research scientists and other staff who study climate, geology, oceanography and other earth sciences. Her painting, Eco Venus—an 8x10ft ‘ecological interpretation’ of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus—will include more than 100 ocean species that the International Union for Conservation of Nature recognizes as endangered. Rogers plans to exhibit the painting alongside some of her other works during the 2017 Venice Biennale, a contemporary visual art exhibition held every other year in the Italian city.
Please join International Research Institute for Climate and Society for a conversation with Michelle Rogers to learn more about her work and explore opportunities for science-art collaborations on Monday, November 21 at 11 AM in Monell 205. RSVP via email [email protected].
Michelle Rogers grew up in Dundalk, Ireland on the border between the Northern and Southern regions of the country at the height of the Troubles. As early as 1993, Amnesty International selected her to go to Bosnia, an experience that resulted in a series of paintings entitled “A Dark Heart” about the darkest side of human nature, the work was exhibited in Ireland and New York at UN Plaza and Columbia University in 2005. In 2002, she was invited to show her painting “9-11 Memorial” a tribute to those lost on September 11, at the Irish Arts Center in New York City. Other exhibitions include Transformations 1,2,3 a Tribute to Caravaggio, at the Museum of Modern art in Guadalajara, Mexico and at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome, and Troubles at Home, a series, which examines the notion of patriotism in North America following the 9-11 attacks; exhibited at Track 16 gallery in Los Angeles. Her large painting “Lampedusa,” explores the plight and flight of immigrants of Italy, which was shown both at the Judson Memorial Church in New York City and in St. George Church in Venice during The Venice Biennale 52.
Recent exhibitions at The Paul Kane gallery in Dublin “ I Am From Where I Am” explore the ideas of homeland, while her exhibition in Rome “On earth as it is in heaven” included work focusing on political and environmental issues and was accompanied by a catalogue with introduction by Achille Bonito Oliva. Rogers was recently invited by Ban Ki-Moon to attend the signing of The Paris Climate Agreement at the UN Plaza in New York. Rogers divides her time between Rome, New York, and Dublin.
