The history of art is replete with instances when artists have called society’s attention to the pressing social and political issues of the day. And so it is now, when artists are bringing the crisis of the Earth’s threatened natural environment to the forefront of our cultural thinking.

In this exhibition, the themes of Nature and Culture are examined from the competing realms of the “Earth created” and the “Human or Urban created.” For some of the artists, there is clearly the yearning for the serenity and mystery of the natural world and the cultures that have adhered to it: the jewelry by Sue Amendolara, for example, where she explores her fascination with the small worlds created by plant life and water; the wood sculpture by Rick Barstow that references his Native American heritage.

For artists working in the urban mode, we see the drama of humanity’s excessive consumption of resources, the dirtying of our air, the seductive beauty in the detritus of “civilized” life. These threats are transformed into art by the extraordinary work of Kathy Buszkiewicz, whose use of actual U.S. currency challenges our ideas of the worth of money and its potential to buy unlimited, even useless, things; in the chinaware by Kim Abeles, who uses urban smog to imprint photos of American presidents onto plates; and in the monumental and slyly amusing piece by Willie Cole whose large medallion of women’s shoes creates beauty from the detritus of fashion.

All artists, however, face an environmental conundrum: how to use materials that have been taken from the earth or have been manufactured technogically without defiling the earth or polluting the air we all breathe: the metal ores used in jewelry, once extracted from the earth, cannot be replaced; glues, paints and other artists’ materials often have toxic fumes; artists’ studios can strain precious resources by prolonged use of electricity and running water. This last is the same challenge that faces all of us in our households and workplaces.

The artists in this exhibition have put that challenge in front of us for all to see, ponder, worry about, and resolve to take action. But being artists, they have also created works of great beauty.