We are proposing a week-long public event at Ceres Gallery in New York that will showcase oil paintings and interactive sculpture from Elizabeth Downer Riker's new series: Rights of Nature. Riker’s teenage daughter joined the Fridays for Future youth movement and protested for global action on climate change at the UN for over 72 weeks. Watching her child make the decision to walk out of school because she perceived her future on this planet was at imminent risk made Riker want to use her art to highlight the issue. Searching for a language that could inspire people about a subject that often feels despairing, she looked to the Surrealists for creative and humorous depictions of reality.
Drawing on the work of artists such as Magritte, Frida Kahlo, and Meret Oppenheim, Riker was also inspired by the indigenous resistance to deforestation and extraction as well as the climate activism of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion. Riker supports the Rights of Nature movement whose goal is to protect nature – rivers, mountains and entire ecosystems - by recognizing their inherent legal rights.
This showcase of oil paintings and interactive sculpture in our gallery space at will provide audiences with the opportunity to view the details of each piece, as well as to witness the power of art to inspire people to take action to stop climate change.