BMA Celebrates the Splendor and Fragility of Nature with Black Earth Rising

Monumental works by Firelei Báez, Tyler Mitchell, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Yinka Shonibare, and others connect climate change with colonialism

BALTIMORE, MD (April 3, 2025)—On May 18, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will open Black Earth Rising, an exhibition that celebrates the transcendent power of nature through vivid and compelling works by contemporary African diasporic, Latin American, and Native American artists. Organized by renowned curator and writer Ekow Eshun, the exhibition brings together monumental paintings, sculpture, film, and mixed-media works by some of today’s most acclaimed artists, including Alejandro Piñeiro Bello, Frank Bowling, Teresita Fernández, Todd Gray, Sky Hopinka, Wangechi Mutu, Otobong Nkanga, and Alberta Whittle. Together, their works evoke resplendent moments of beauty and joy even as they shed light on the effects of colonialism, cultural displacement, and climate change on the natural world. The featured artworks are as aesthetically ecstatic as they are conceptually thoughtful and moving, creating a multilayered experience that allows visitors to engage at different levels of interest.

Black Earth Rising is a ticketed exhibition organized as part of the BMA’s Turn Again to the Earth initiative, which explores the relationships between art and the environment across time and geography. The BMA is the only venue for the exhibition, which is on view from May 18 through September 21, 2025. Tickets are available beginning on Earth Day, April 22. A free Community Day event will take place on Sunday, May 18, from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

“Black Earth Rising brings forward the boundless imagination and expressions of a remarkable cadre of artists and invites us to revel in the power of nature. The exhibition is singular in its emphasis on beauty and optimism even as it confronts the historical roots and current challenges of climate change,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “Whether one chooses to simply take in the splendor of the featured works or delve more deeply into the underlying contexts, I’m certain it will be an engaging experience. I am grateful to Ekow for his vision and collaboration and look forward to sharing the exhibition with our audiences.”

Exhibition highlights include Alejandro Piñeiro Bello’s Viajando En La Franja Del Iris (2024), a nearly 12-foot-long oil painting that evokes the lush vibrancy of the Caribbean; Otobong Nkanga’s Meanders (2024), a large woven textile of abstract leaf-like forms in rich greens and golds that resemble vegetation submerged in shallow water; and Sky Hopinka’s Mnemonics of Shape and Reason (2021), a four-minute video that blends fragmented landscapes with layers of audio, poetic text, and music, encouraging contemplation of the beauty of the natural world and the spiritual toll of colonial plunder. The exhibition also features “map paintings” by Frank Bowling and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith; four of Yinka Shonibare’s evocative “Earth Kids” sculptures; and two powerful landscapes by Teresita Fernández that speak to cycles of creation and destruction and the layers of history held by the earth.

Additionally, the BMA will debut “Ma’at Nadjartat Nun,” a 22-minute soundscape composed and performed by Baltimore-based multi-instrumentalist Jamal R. Moore. The work was commissioned in response to Black Earth Rising and draws inspiration from Indigenous sounds around the world. The title is an Egyptian expression that translates as the “cosmic order, harmony, and balance of the planet earth.” The soundscape will also be available on the Bloomberg Connects website and app in May.

Recent scholarship suggests that our human-made climate crisis can be traced to the 16th-century rise in forced migration and labor, plantation agriculture, and global commerce as European powers settled the New World. These currents helped establish the foundation for the ongoing decimation of Native lands and ecosystems; the extraction of natural resources; the creation of unsustainable commercial practices; and the social, political, and environmental inequities that plague communities across the globe. Black Earth Rising positions artists of color as central to our understanding of climate change, as they are uniquely positioned to shift the direction of environmental conversations—by both reflecting on the ramifications of colonialism and reveling in the splendor of nature as a means of liberation and reclamation.

The exhibition’s name is taken from terra preta—Portuguese for “black soil”—which refers to a type of fertile earth found in the Amazon Basin that was created by ancient Indigenous civilizations many thousands of years ago. Recent decades have witnessed a renewed interest in Indigenous land management practices as sustainable alternatives to conventional agriculture. This rediscovery has highlighted the resilience and innovation of Indigenous peoples and challenged colonial narratives that dismissed their knowledge and contributions to environmental stewardship.

Guest curator Ekow Eshun noted, “Black Earth Rising brings together artists exploring questions of history, power, climate change, and social and environmental justice—and who are doing so through artworks of powerful insight and great resonance and beauty. Their artworks reach to the poetic and lyrical rather than the didactic and summon something of the joy and sorrow that comes with being denizens of a planet whose fragility becomes more apparent with each passing day.”

The exhibition is organized by guest curator Ekow Eshun with support from Katie Cooke, BMA Manager of Curatorial Affairs.

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About Ekow Eshun

Turn Again to the Earth

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.