"When We Were Ocean" at M Stark Gallery

View Christina Conklin's solo exhibition, "When We Were Ocean" from June 3 - July 15.  Reception for the artist and book signing for The Atlas of Disappearing Places on Sunday, June 4, 1:00 - 4:00 PM.

M Stark Gallery is open Fridays from 4:30 to 6:00 PM, Saturdays from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Sundays from 11:00 to 4:00 PM, and by appointment.

Christina Conklin’s method of infusing wet algae with inks and pigments leaves a gorgeous, unpredictable mark on watercolor paper. Compositions can be seen as documentation of elemental processes, magnified microscopic organisms and their worlds, polar landscapes, maps, and spirit animals.

Conklin thinks deeply about the Earth’s 4.5-billion-year-old recipe of time and matter. She is awestruck by the profundity of the natural world, created by chance chemical reaction. Her work persuades us to slow down and think and find a way through science and culture change to minimize and heal our impact on the planet.

Like the British and U.S. land artists of the 60s and 70s, Conklin’s art practice includes working in the field making marks directly on the land and using raw materials of the earth in her studio work. Spiritual yearnings concerning the planet Earth as home to all life are felt in Conklin’s work as well.

Conklin is the co-author and illustrator of The Atlas of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans in a Time of Climate Change (The New Press, 2021) using an ink-on-dried seaweed process. Conklin received her B.A. cum laude in religious studies and studio art from Middlebury College. She received her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts where she focused on textiles and sculpture.