How is the weather? Art and Climate Change

Juried by Shana Nys Dambrot, an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown
LA. Formerly the arts editor at the L.A. Weekly, she is the co-founder of
13ThingsLA, and a contributor to the Village Voice, Flaunt, Artillery, and other
culture publications. She studied art history at Vassar College, curates and
juries exhibitions, writes prolifically for exhibition catalogs and monographic
publications, and speaks at galleries, schools, and cultural institutions nationally. 

Dramatic weather is everywhere, affecting our lives, more than ever before.  We just experienced the hottest average temperature ever recorded on Earth. Heavy, blinding fog, smoke from forest fires and incessant smog fill the air. We have had record sleet and snowfall this year, giving us dangerous swollen rivers late into summer. 

Topicality is OCCCA’s forte, and the extreme weather caused by climate change has become an existential threat to our planet now. From Rembrandt and Turner to Gerhart Richter’s Secrets of Clouds, for centuries, artists have been interpreting the weather in their art. But now is the time for artists to make a statement.

Not just beautiful sunsets and devastatingly frightening floods, but show us your high tides, big waves, atmospheric rivers, and storm cells.  We have melting icebergs and glaciers falling into the ocean. Heat waves and dust blanketing large portions of the country. Tornadoes, hail, and lightning delivered by Cumulonimbus clouds.  Show us all the extremes and kick up a storm.

“We are the stewards of our planet, and we haven’t done enough”, Jane Goodall

Send us your visions of hope, promising ideas, new solutions, and innovative creations that can mitigate the impending doom of climate change, if only we can implement them soon.  How will we respond to the existential threat of climate change with our art?

– Robin Repp, 2024

Up to 3 free entries for visual artists impacted by the LA wildfires.