Catholic Artists for
Environmental Justice
Artista Bottega Exhibition, Saint Paul, MN
Press release
Art Exhibit:
April 7th through May 2nd, 2018
Artista Bottega Gallery
7th Street West
St Paul, MN 55102
Exhibition Title: Hope. Earth. Liberation.
Five artists from around the world with varied connections and responses to environmental justice, art and Catholicism.
Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra, a St. Paulite with family from El Salvador, is an artist, musician and curator who works in printmaking, mixed media, and performance art.
Tony Ejiofor from Lagos, Nigeria, residing in Oakdale, Mn, who works in oil paint on abstract landscapes reflective of his homeland.
Ricardo Levins Morales, a Minneapolis-based Puerto Rican focused on posters of social justice.
Anne Sugnet, a New Yorker turned Minneapolitan (with ancestors from Ireland, France and Germany) is an artist and educator who makes installations and encaustic paintings.
Mary Gallagher, a St. Paulite whose grandparents hail from Ireland, works in mixed media with paint, monoprint, found objects, and plaster.
Come join the visual arts conversation about earth justice for our global community.Through the visual arts, we encourage people with connections of any kind to Catholicism to embrace the rich social justice tradition within the Church, and to actively cherish our Earth like "a sister with whom we share our life, a mother who opens her arms to embrace us".* We remind non-Catholics of this cultural heritage, and invite you to expect the 1.2 billion Catholics on earth to act with conviction and care for our common home.
*Laudato Si, Pope Francis, 2015
Basilica of St. Mary, Mpls, MN
Pope John XXIII & Teresa of Calcutta Galleries
Press Release
Art Exhibit:
May 21st through July 3rd, 2022
Basilica of St. Mary
Pope John XXIII and Teresa of Calcutta Galleries
Hennepin Ave at North Sixteenth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612-333-1381
Exhibition Title: Terra Nostra, Our Earth
Five Artists with varied connections and responses to environmental justice, art and Catholicism, collectively known as Catholic Artists for Environmental Justice:
Ayanna Muata, photographer and recording artist, explores the relationship between discarded containers
intermingled with organic life in our urban setting in a series entitled "Modern Landscape".
Anne Sugnet, installation artist and painter, employs large black and white compositions comprised of remnants of a wide array of disposable plastics as both a lament and call to action.
Mark Boatwright, painter and collage artist, uses recycled materials as a canvas on which to paint and uplift environmental heroines and heroes from around the globe.
Mary Gallagher, painter and collage artist, focuses on the sacredness of our landscape and of all species, honoring those lost to extinction/pollution with metallic and matte paints on paper and canvas.
Florian "Slats" Fairbanks, painter, uses mixed media to illuminate the smallness of man in nature, inspired by real places in the woodlands of northern Minnesota.
As Catholic Artists for Environmental Justice, we are excited to exhibit at the Basilica of St. Mary and engage in conversation about Earth justice with our global community. We dialogue with viewers both via our art and an interactive activity called the Living Scroll Project. The project allows individuals to identify one action step for themselves on behalf of the environment that is then posted on a long scroll of mulberry paper and becomes part of our future exhibitions. We use our most powerful tool, art, to address the most pressing moral imperative of our time, preserving life on Earth. Together we actively cherish our Earth "like a sister with whom we share our life, a mother who opens her arms to embrace us"*
*Laudato Si, Pope Francis, 2015
St. Thomas Moore, St. Paul MN
Ignatian Gallery
Press Release
Art Exhibit:
October 1st to October 21st, 2023
St. Thomas Moore Church
Ignatian Gallery
1079 Summit Avenue
St. Paul MN 55105
651-227-7669
Exhibition Title: Seasons of Change
As Catholic Artists for Environmental Justice, including Ayanna Muata, Mark Boatwright, Florian "Slats" Fairchild, Anne Sugnet and Mary Gallagher, we are delighted to collaborate with both St. Peter Claver and St. Thomas Moore Churches for the annual Seasons of Change Project devoted to protecting our planet. Our artwork is the first to grace the new Ignatian Center. Our Living Scroll Project, an interactive environmental art project allowed many to participate in our ongoing series of exhibitions and community engagement.