Art and the Environment With Diane Tuft and April Gornik

Guild Hall welcomes mixed-media artist Diane Tuft and painter April Gornik to the stage on Monday, August 26, at 5 p.m. for a conversation moderated by Andy Battaglia, executive editor of ARTnews and Art in America. The artists will discuss the climate crisis in connection with their artistic practices. The program coincides with the recent release of Tuft’s latest monograph, “Entropy,” which focuses on water and its radical transformation under the unrelenting pressures of climate change.

“Entropy” is a photographic exploration detailing the poetry and fragility of nature amidst the tragedy of climate change. The collection of photographs by Diane Tuft provides a captivating glimpse into the rapidly changing landscapes of our world. Tuft focuses on the subject of water, contrasting global sea-level rise with depletion in Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The publication includes essays by prominent figures in art and science, including Bonnie K. Baxter, Ph.D., professor of biology and director of Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster University, and 20th-century art historian Stacey Epstein, Ph.D. add depth and insight to Tuft’s work, and its significance in the context of climate change.

Weaving passages of haiku with photographs, Tuft’s newest monograph is packaged in a luxe- cloth-wrapped case screen-printed with her artwork, “Journey’s End,” featuring the Great Salt Lake. “Entropy” is a dramatic call to arms inspiring collective action for the critical preservation of nature.

Since 1998, mixed-media artist Diane Tuft has traveled the world recording the environmental factors shaping the Earth’s changing landscape. She exhibits and lectures at institutions across the globe.

April Gornik received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, in Halifax, Canada. Since moving to New York in 1978, Gornik has gone on to become one of the foremost figures of contemporary American landscape painting. She has exhibited extensively in one-person and group shows in the United States and abroad and is represented by Miles McEnery Gallery. She is based in North Haven and is the co-founder of The Church, an innovative artist residency and exhibition space in Sag Harbor.

Andy Battaglia is executive editor of ARTnews and Art in America. His writing on art and culture of other kinds has also appeared in publications including Frieze, the Paris Review, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and more.

A book signing with Diane Tuft will follow the discussion. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at guildhall.org. The book can be purchased in advance or at the program for $80 plus tax. Guild Hall is at 158 Main Street in East Hampton.