The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum in association with the Environmental Sciences Department opens the exhibit “Defending the Ocean with Art” on Friday August 25th at 4pm (reception at 5pm) in the Brown Library of Clark Hall. On view are twenty-one sculptures and prints by contemporary indigenous artists that celebrate the central importance of the ocean to human life and responds to its current threats. Plastic debris and abandoned fishing nets are trapping and killing a rich array of marine life, eventually drifting to the bottom of the sea, suffocating the seabed and coral reefs. To raise awareness about the long-term damage to marine environment caused by these “ghost nets”, Indigenous artists from Pormpuraaw are re-purposing the nets into sculptures for the fine art market. The exhibit has just traveled from the UN in New York, and includes aboriginal sculptures of Pacific fish created from plastic debris and ghost nets.

You can also read the UVA Today write up on the exhibit by Fariss Samarrai here.