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From the Great Lakes to the Great Plains
June 26, 2025 @ 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
The special exhibit, “From the Great Lakes to the Great Plains: The Visible Currents of Climate Change,” is at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts from June 13 through Sept. 14, 2025. Curated by Rachel Adams, Chief Curator and Director of Programs, the exhibition brings together 21 artists and an artist collective to examine the environmental, cultural, and political implications of water in two vital North American regions.
Participating artists — who have lived or worked in these regions — grapple with water as both life-giving and contested, revealing its roles in systems of resilience, exploitation, and transformation. Works span media and perspectives, with artists drawing from disciplines including ecology, activism, technology, history, and documentary practices.
Artists featured in this exhibition include Teresa Baker, Jess Benjamin, Nadia Botello, Andrea Carlson + Rozalinda Borcila, Hoesy Corona, Timothy Frerichs, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dana Fritz, Sky Hopinka, JeeYeun Lee, Dylan AT Miner, Trey Moody, John Pfahl, Platte Basin Timelapse, Asad Raza, Karen Reimer, Anna Scime, Bently Spang, Colleen Thurston, and Tali Weinberg. Their contributions range from film and installation to weaving, sculpture, and sound — together offering imaginative responses to the urgent global water crisis.
Among the highlights are monumental clay sculptures by Jess Benjamin, evoking the Hoover Dam intake towers and reflecting on infrastructure’s long-term environmental toll; a new commission by Tali Weinberg that translates 130 years of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) temperature data from four U.S. river basins into woven textile panels; and Bently Spang’s immersive War Shirt #6 – Waterways, a powerful reinterpretation of the Plains Indian war shirt composed of 26 video monitors capturing the sights and sounds of water across Indigenous homelands.
