About the exhibition
Please note the gallery will be closed the week of Thanksgiving, November 24-29, 2024.
Thursday September 12, 6-8pm Opening Reception
Friday September 13, 6pm Conversation with artist Oliver Ressler and GC Professor Ashley Dawson
Tuesday October 15, 6pm "Art of Activism and Activism of Art" Conversation with artist Greg Sholette, Professor and co-Director SPCUNY and artist Jennifer Jones, Ph.D. student in Art History and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation James Gallery Fellow
The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center, presents a collection of films and graphic works of Oliver Ressler, the renowned artist and social movements researcher, in his first-ever solo exhibition in New York.
Since 2008, Austria-based Oliver Ressler has dedicated his art to exploring diverse activist approaches in response to the climate crisis that has pushed our world to the precipice of multiple catastrophic “tipping points.” These critical thresholds, once crossed, unleash colossal and often irreversible changes within our climate system. Climate activists around the world confront corporations producing fossil fuel, while demanding more action from their governments to curb carbon emissions. Ranging from poetic to documentary, and often interventionist representations, Ressler’s works focus on communities and activist groups in Austria, Germany, Spain, and Ecuador, who resist construction projects and mining operation that cause destruction of natural forests, ancestral land, and water.
In many of his films, Ressler documents the assemblies and working group meetings of global climate activists – a mix that includes artists and poets. These dynamic gatherings serve as crucibles of discussion, where the participants deliberate on the methods and objectives that will guide their collective struggle for a future that transcends mere survival. “Barricade Cultures for the Future” and “Overturn the Present, Barricade the Future,” presented in the exhibition, feature activists with a background as artists and cultural workers questioning the widespread habit of treating “art” and “activism” as separate categories, when in practice, they often overlap and influence each other.
Ressler’s graphic works passionately advocate for immediate action. In the series of drawings titled “Contours of the Coming World,” presented in the exhibition, the artist intertwines his visionary depictions of everyday activities aimed at safeguarding the environment with the practices he has witnessed and actively engaged in alongside activists from around the globe. These illustrations serve as a bridge between his imaginative insights and the tangible realities of environmental activism.
A Life Worth Surviving For is organized by independent curator Olga Kopenkina
The James Gallery Curator/Head: Katherine Carl
Exhibition Installation Production: LanningSmith
This exhibition made possible in part with support from the Austrian Cultural Forum, New York. With thanks to SPCUNY and Earth and Environmental Studies Program, CUNY Graduate Center.
