It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine)

It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine) curated by Amy Lipton, opened on January 31^st at Ramapo College Gallery in Mahwah NJ and will be on view through March 6^th. The exhibition explores contemporary views of nature and habitat expressed through landscape painting and drawing. The artists included; George Boorujy, Adam Cvijanovic, Peter Edlund, Joy Garnett, Kimberley Hart, Eve Andree Laramee, Sarah McCoubrey, Jason Middlebrook, Aviva Rahmani, Lisa Sanditz, Charlotte Schulz, Eva Struble, Sarah Trigg and Marion Wilson envision the natural world in relationship to pressing environmental issues. 

Taken from a 1987 song by the band R.E.M., It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine) this somewhat ironic title suggests the possibility that by avoiding complacency and with awareness, intelligence, compassion and activism, solutions to environmental problems will be found to avoid potentially catastrophic results. The works attempt to meet the challenges of the new ecological imperative by bringing attention to the viewer of the need for protection, preservation and action.  Artists often have a prophetic role and throughout history have alerted us to problems that are unforeseen or overlooked. Using realism, fantasy or process as a source for imagination and transformation, they seek to create an awareness of loss and beauty in the marginal, the overused and the threatened.

A panel discussion, It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and We Don't Feel Fine)  will include artists George Boorujy, Peter Edlund, Aviva Rahmani, Marion Wilson and Ramapo College Environmental Studies Department Professors, Michael R. Edelstein and Howard Horowitz. Moderated by Amy Lipton, the panel will take place on Thursday February 28th at 3:30pm in the Pascal Gallery located in the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts at Ramapo College.

Images of the exhibition taken by Joy Garnett can be seen HERE.