The Art of Zaria Forman

The art of Zaria Forman

THE ART OF ZARIA FORMAN

Zaria Forman is an American artist who documents climate change through pastel drawings. She travels to remote regions of the world to collect images and inspiration for her work, which is exhibited worldwide. She flew with NASA on several operations - the IceBridge missions over Antarctica, Greenland and Arctic Canada. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning , CNN, PBS, and the BBC. She is a speaker at TEDTalk , and has spoken at Amazon, Google, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,

She was artist-in-residence aboard the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times , National Geographic , The Wall Street Journal , and Smithsonian Magazine. Forman currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Iceberg Antarctica

Courtesy Zaria Forman

THE ARTIST'S MISSION

It is Zara Forman's life mission to communicate the urgency of climate change through art. So she has travelled to the polar regions to capture the unfolding story of ice melt, and to the equator to document the rise of the seas. Her drawings explore moments of transition, turbulence and calm in the landscape, allowing viewers to connect with places they may never be able to visit.

Her images are bursting with detail to engage and transport the viewer. She accurately conveys the beauty of these endangered regions, in contrast to their desolation, to inspire viewers to contribute to their preservation. These landscapes she portrays are quite inaccessible, so their environmental problems may seem distant or abstract. She works on a large scale to recreate the wonder of seeing an iceberg up close. In this way, she hopes to generate momentum and a common purpose across disciplinary, geographic and political affiliations.

ANTARCTICA

Antarctica is a series of pastel drawings created by Zaria Forman following her four-week art residency aboard the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica. This vast continent of ethereal majesty has towering ice that glows a sapphire blue and floats in still, dark waters. Its glaciers have accumulated over millions of years, carving valleys in jagged rock and spilling into ancient seas.

Today it is also a landscape in flux. As temperatures rise, glaciers melt faster than they grow. Many of us are intellectually aware that climate change is our greatest global challenge, and yet the problem may feel abstract, the landscapes at risk far away. The scale and detail of the drawings are intended to make the viewer realise the magnificence and transience of Antarctica, and to recreate the overwhelming experience of standing next to a glacier. They capture a moment in this ever-changing ecosystem that allows us to celebrate what is still here and reflect on what we have to lose.

Supraglacial Lake between Hiawatha and Humboldt Glaciers Greenland

Courtesy Zaria Forman

Weddell Sea Southeast off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula

Courtesy Zaria Forman

OVERVIEW

Zaria Forman's latest work is an aerial exploration of some of the most rapidly changing places on our planet. Over the past two years, Zaria has travelled with NASA science missions to track the moving ice. This has resulted in a collection that faithfully captures the diversity of ephemeral landscapes as she flew just a few hundred metres above Antarctica and the Arctic.

The proximity to NASA scientists inspired Zaria to create work that is highly precise in its technical execution. Aiming to communicate the alarming rate at which our polar regions are melting, Zaria portrays the vulnerability of thinning ice and the heat-absorbing colour of the seas

with profound detail. In the sharpness of a bird's eye view, drawn in her signature large format, Zaria has created very intimate portraits of the environment we are in danger of losing.

Fine Art Prints by Zara Forman are available exclusively at ArtStar.com. They are fully authenticated and limited edition...

www.zariaforman.com