WATER WORLD CALL FOR ARTISTS

WATER JUROR / PRINTED MATTER / SWALE / 2027 Gathering

The consequential choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, is the perfect metaphor for our global reliance on oil. Thankfully, it's inherent that nature confines human convenience. It's time to walk, ride a bike, and make art about the absurdities! 

We are thrilled to announce that the juror for our 2026 Call for Artists, Water World, is Elena Soterakis. To learn more about her work with BioBAT Art Space in Brooklyn and her interest in water, see below 

This month we will continue with the fourth edition of the Wicked Monstrous Dialogues, introducing member artists making work addressing plastic pollution, and will also hold a discussion following of the recent documentary The Plastic Detox, now playing on Netflix. see below 

A few exciting announcements: see below 

• next month Soils Turn will be featured at the Metabolic Studio table at the Printed Matter Art Book Fair in Pasadena, May 7-10.

• ecoartspace has been invited to help program SWALE HOUSE on Governors Island this summer in collaboration with the Urban Soils Institute (USI). This year the house will move to a larger location for added programs including a Soil Shroud Room where buried textiles will be assembled.

• ecoartspace is preparing to celebrate 30 years of working with artists addressing environmental issues and is organizing an international ecoartspace gathering in New Mexico in fall 2027!

Hope to see you in Pasadena in May and on Governors Island in NYC this summer!

Patricia Watts, founder/curator

Header Image: Frank Ramspott, Berlin 

Announcing our WATER WORLD juror Elena Soterakis, who is an artist, curator, and co-founder of BioBAT Art Space, an interdisciplinary living laboratory embedded within a biotechnology incubator at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in New York City. Soterakis was the curator of Water Stories (2024–2025), a year-long exhibition developed in collaboration with the Interstate Environmental Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The exhibition translated environmental monitoring data, regulatory processes, and aquatic research into immersive, public-facing experiences, reframing water not only as a resource but as a shared cultural and ecological responsibility while engaging citizen scientists and inspiring awe and stewardship.

DEADLINE 5/31/2026

events

WICKED MONSTROUS Dialogues: Part IV

Thursday, April 16 Timebuddy

United States: 10am HDT, Noon PDT, 1 MDT, 2pm CST, 3pm EDT

Europe: 19:00 GMT, 21:00 CET, Australia: Friday, March 20, 6:00am AEDT   

Elizabeth McAlpin

Felipe-Andres Piedra and Sayaka Ganz

Kim Bernard

For this fourth Dialogues, we will hear from Elizabeth McAlpin, who will share her ongoing Plastic Fossils series, including Pawn Game, which is a large-scale interactive chess set inviting reflection on single-use plastics consumption, and Felipe-Andres and Sayaka Ganz, who will present Plastihenge, a proposed contemporary monument that will function as a scientific research site for discovering microbes with a 'taste' for plastic. And Kim Bernard, who will share her mobile educational upcycling unit that she uses to create plastic sculptural installations in schools, art centers, neighborhood communities, and public settings, known as the PopUpCycler.  

Each presenter will have approximately 15 minutes to discuss their work, then Q&A with audience participation following. 

The Plastic Detox

Discussion w/ members following Wicked Monstrous Dialogues

Thursday, April 16 Timebuddy

United States: 11:15am HDT, 1:15pm PDT, 2:15pm MDT, 3:15pm CST, 4:15pm EDT

Europe: 20:15 GMT, 22:15 CET, Australia: Friday, March 20, 7:15am AEDT 

If you have watched or can watch The Plastic Detox before April 16 and would like to listen in or participate in a discussion about the documentary, please stay on Zoom following the Wicked Monstrous Dialogues! see above

Wicked Monstrous  coming fall 2026

Online, print-on-demand and limited edition book: 130 artists

Aindreas Scholz, Alanna Baird, Alejandro Duran, Alicia Escott, Amanda Thackray, Andrea Polli, Ann Savageau, Anna Mein, Anne-Katrin Spiess, Annette Nykiel, Ashton Phillips, Barbara Cooper, Barbara Lubliner, Bee (Beverly) Naidus, Belén Millán, Benjamin Von Wong, Beth Bando, Beth Shepherd, Bethany Taylor, Bev J Elgar, Blue McRight, Bryan Northup, Calder Kamin, Carol Sogard, Carolien Adriaansche, Caroline MacMoran, Charity Ridpath, Charlotte Bastian, Christine Mackey, Christy Rupp, Cindy Pease Roe, Clare Thomas, Cody Norman, Colette Copeland, Constance Mallinson, Constance Old, Cynthia Minet, David Ellingsen, Dawn Stetzel, Deanna Pindell, Devan Horton, Diedra Krieger, Duke Riley, Elisabeth Condon, Elise Marks Vazelakis, Elizabeth McAlpin, Ellen Driscoll, Emma Akmakdjian, Eurhi Jones, Faith Bebbington, Felipe-Andres Piedra, Francesca Busca, Griffith Aaron Baker, Heather Law, Heidi Dauphin, Hollis Hammonds, Ian Trask, Janine Brown, Jemma Woolmore, Jennifer Kotter, Johanna Törnqvist, Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang, Kalliopi Monoyios, Karen Hackenberg, Kat Kazlauskas, Katharine K. Owens, Kate Dodd, Katharine Harvey, Kathleen King, Kathryn Frund, Katy Rodden Walker, Kelsey Merreck Wagner, Kelly Marie O'Brien, Kim Bernard, Laura Nova, Laurie Riccadonna, Leah Dalton, Leah Mata Fragua, Leticia Bajuyo, Liina Klauss, Luba Zygarewicz, Lynn Cazabon, Margaret Smithers-Crump, Marguerite Perret, Martha Lewis, Megan Wong, Minal Mistry, Monique Martin, Natalya Khorover, Nicole Cooper, Nicole Dextras, Nicole Hixon, Niki Lederer, Ogwado Joachim, Pamela Longobardi, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Pauline Galiana,  Pierre Leichner, Portia Munson, Posey (Pamela) Moulton, Rebecca McGee Tuck, Reenie Charriere, Riva Weinstein, Robert Lach, Robin Frohardt, Ruth Peche, Ruth Tabancay, Sara Mast, Sarah Knobel, Sarah Umles, Sari Nordman, Sayaka Ganz, Scott Bluedorn, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Shani Nottingham, Shelli Rottschafter, Steve McPherson, STUDIOKCA, Swapna Namboodiri, Taina Litwak, Tara de la Garza, Toby Zallman, TOMO, Tracy Penn, Twyla Exner, Tyler Burton, Virginia Katz, Wiebke Schroeder, Yevgenia Davidoff, Zelda Zinn 

coming soon

Mary Mattingly has been working for several months now in Medina, New York, preparing to launch her second floating food forest titled Floating Garden, a more navigable version of Swale (2016). Designed with garden beds that will grow public food, this barge will highlight plants from farms and orchards in Upstate New York. Launching June 6th with the Medina Triennial, the Garden will be open for foraging while docked on the Erie Canal for the summer and will traverse the canal and down the Hudson River in September. The eventual destination being Brooklyn. Swale, also the name of Mattingly's organization and arts venue on Governors Island, has invited ecoartspace to help program SWALE HOUSE this summer, inviting our members to do residencies, exhibitions, and programs, in collaboration with the Urban Soils Institute USI. Several artists included in Soils Turn will be presenting work. more info coming soon

featured artist

taina litwak

"My sculptures and installations focus on the modern ubiquity of plastics and electronics in every aspect of life. We pour staggering volumes of ever-diversifying plastics into the biosphere. The work is largely confessional and consists of discarded plastics; mostly my own, my office, and my neighbors’ discards. These things, so varied in color, texture, weight, purpose, and durability, are now flat and ominous, revealing their fundamental nature: toxic petroleum waste."  www.tainalitwakart.com

store

Soils Turn PREORDERS 

The first edition is S O L D  O U T.... 50 second edition orders are going out early May. The price of the book has gone up due to shipping costs. Additional printing scheduled for June 2026, delivery July/August. Online book viewing/interacting will be available this summer. We will also have ten copies available for purchase at the Printed Matter Art Book Fair, Pasadena, CA, May 7-10, 2026.

Go to store

announcements

DISTURBANCE: The Art and Ecology of Change is an interdisciplinary public art and science initiative of which Erika Osborne has been selected to participate, organized by the Paseo Project, Taos, New Mexico. August 28-30, 2026. above

Artwork acquired by the Crocker Art Museum, Linda Gass, “San Joaquin-Merced Revival” The artwork depicts an aerial view of the confluence of the San Joaquin and Merced Rivers paired with an underwater view of a Chinook Salmon run, telling the story of the impact of severe water diversions from California rivers on the survival of native fish species. 

PO Box 5211, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502