Kim Abeles is an artist based in Washington, D.C. An urban planner by training, Abeles became interested in art after an internship at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an organization dedicated to social justice. Her interest in art has taken her from mixing chemicals to making sun chandeliers, to the watercolor panels she uses as raindrops. For years, the result of her art has been climate change art—symbolic images of melting ice caps, ocean acidification, storm surges. Each object has been handcrafted from recycled materials, and like her installation paintings, her art thrives on creativity, emotion, and technical expertise.
Kim Abeles Kim Abeles is an artist based in Washington, D.C. An urban planner by training, Abeles became interested in art after an internship at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an organization dedicated to social justice. Her interest in art has taken her from mixing chemicals to making sun chandeliers, to the watercolor panels she uses as raindrops. For years, the result of her art has been climate change art—symbolic images of melting ice caps, ocean acidification, storm surges. Each object has been handcrafted from recycled materials, and like her installation paintings, her art thrives on creativity, emotion, and technical expertise.
The Art of Erasing Power: From Oil Paintings to Illustrations for the World Press Room
One cannot exist without the other. Making art allows us to challenge our brains to become present with the world around us, to dream freely and try to experience it through the eyes of an outsider. It can help to nourish us and also allow us to process information as we accept, evaluate, and reject it in our lives. All art is political art, because it seeks to make those who see it feel something. The art that I make, I hope, can help people to see that the climate crisis is unfolding before our eyes in all its forms.
View more of Abeles’ work at her website.