Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on and interruption of the natural world. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, Nina advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. Her work takes many forms, including drawings, performance, pedagogy, critical writing, long term community-based projects, and public art.
Nina’s work emerges from a deep time perspective: planets, geology, and ecosystems mingle and create constellations with social issues and personal narratives. She believes in curiosity and empathy as life principals and as conduits between various forms of knowledge. Nina’s research is physical and experiential, solitary and . She explores places where human impact is evident yet camouflaged, taking photographs, studying scientific and social interpretations, and collecting materials that become the material of her meticulous drawings. She has traveled from the Bering Strait to the coast of Maine, documenting military bases, nuclear test sites, clear cuts, dams and pit mines. She seeks overlooked stories, erased legacies, and uncanny metaphors.
Recent solo exhibitions of Nina’s work have been organized by SITE Santa Fe, Indianapolis Contemporary, and university museums across the US. Her work has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, and on PBS; her writing has been published in American Scientist and Edge Effects Journal. Nina’s research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. Nina is an affiliate artist of the National Performance Network. She has recently held research positions at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Anchorage Museum, and the Art and Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico. Nina migrates between rural places in New Mexico and Alaska.
Website : www.ninaelder.com
