Long Island’s East End has long been a vital fishing and agricultural region, where communities have relied on the land and water for generations. Today, environmental shifts and pressures increasingly threaten these traditions. Regeneration: Long Island’s History of Ecological Art and Care responds to this urgency by showcasing works that emerge from the intersection of ecological art, environmental action, and community collaboration. The exhibition features ten intergenerational artists with strong ties to Long Island and New York whose works stem from an active involvement with the environmental challenges that impact the East End. Addressing rising sea levels, depleted natural habitats, and ocean pollution, the artists approach these issues from a place of curiosity, hope, and shared responsibility, ultimately modeling alternative and restorative ways of engaging with the non-human world.
A focal point of the exhibition is a presentation of newly commissioned work by artist Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos, b. 1976, Springfield, OR), made in collaboration with the Shinnecock Kelp Farmers, an intergenerational collective of Indigenous women who harness the ancestral tradition of seaweed harvesting to address nitrogen pollution in local waters. Drawing on her abstract mark making and interweaving Shinnecock and Hanis Coos cultural and ecological traditions, Siestreem’s paintings and ceramic sculptures will explore the Shinnecock Kelp Farmer’s project—in which restorative care is inextricable from grassroots activism and generative growth.
