Solastalgia

KCAM Velia De Iuliis, Who Will Be Left, Photo by Deen Babakhyi

Main Gallery, September 11 – December 11, 2025 

Solastalgia is an exhibition about eco-grief that explores the emotional effects of environmental devastation as well as radically hopeful narratives about the future of life on Earth. Bringing together nine artists working across different media, many of the works bear witness to widespread species loss and degraded landscapes. Others examine the sources of climate crisis and demonstrate the ways particular forms of life and human populations are disproportionately affected. Still others consider ways of coping with environmental uncertainty and ecological decline, calling for a radical reexamination of our relationship to the natural world. Taken together, the works make a profound statement about grief as an unavoidable emotional response to environmental collapse that we must acknowledge, tend to, and learn from if we are to collectively build a sustainable future for life on our home planet.

Featured artists: Christine Atkinson, Saif Azzuz, Carolyn Castaño, Velia De Iuliis, Paige Emery, Merion Estes, Alicia Piller, Heather Renée Russ, and Jonathan Schwartz  

Solastalgia was organized by Chief Curator Erin Stout, PhD, and the staff of Carolyn Campagna Kleefled Contemporary Art Museum. We acknowledge with gratitude the generous support for this exhibition and accompanying programs provided by the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Instructionally Related Activities Fund, the Elizabeth and Charles Brooks Endowment, and the Arts Council for Long Beach. 

Learn more about educational programs inspired by Solastalgia. All programs are free and open to the public. 

KCAM Velia De Iuliis, Who Will Be Left, 2022

 

KCAM Azzuz Artwork2 Web1

 

 

 

 

KCAM Heather Renee Russ artwork

Images:

(1) Velia De Iuliis, Who Will Be Left, 2022. Gouache on canvas. 60 x 40 inches (diptych). Courtesy of Artist. © Velia De Iuliis. Photo by Deen Babakhyi.
(2) Saif Azzuz, Sometimes all you can do is believe, 2022. Acrylic, shellac, house paint cabinet door and plywood. 26 1/2 x 24 x 2 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley, CA.© Saif Azzuz. Image courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley. Photography by Chris Grunder, San Francisco. 
(3) Heather Renée Russ, Wild fistulosa, 2024. Archival pigment print. 41 x 57 inches. Courtesy of Heather Renée Russ. © Heather Renée Russ.

All artwork copyright the artist.