Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation, the American artist’s first mid-career survey exhibition, brings together the key projects of the last 12 years, encompassing the artist’s diverse oeuvre addressing climate adaptation, environmental justice, urban development, historical notions of landscape and its representation in contemporary visual culture. Through an immersive display of large-scale photographic murals, traditional framed prints, and video works amidst the walls painted in vivid colors of the artist’s adopted hometown, Miami, the exhibition alludes to the meta-landscapes of the contemporary image-saturated world while questioning the sustainability of modern developments. Without the typical gloom of environmental photography, the exhibition invites the viewers to reflect on climate change from the perspective of hope, even if that hope currently requires imagination.
Samoylova is widely recognized for her investigations into the relationships between image and environment, which span both studio and location-based practice. Over her career, the artist has engaged in extensive studies on how images perform in the public arena, with her gaze fixed on the cultural aspirations, decorative veneers, picturesque renderings, and luxurious promises that reside omnipresently and subversively within our daily media streams.
