There’s the intimate and inquisitive feel of a personal sketchbook to “Drawn to Earth: Contemporary Art and Environment in the Americas,” which opened April 12 at the Harvard Art Museums. The show uses the history of drawing in America as its starting point and examines a medium used by artists and scientists during colonization, including their innovations using water and natural inks, while confronting and contorting that legacy.
There’s a great deal of indigenous and Latine artists in the show, with several using plants to evoke colonial histories. Daiara Tukano’s untitled drawings depict a tobacco tree and a pupunha tree; the linguistic trees of Brazil’s indigenous peoples are scrawled on top of the branches, referring to language classification and conveying the ways people and plants have been objectified by scientific classification. Joiri Minaya, an artist from the Dominican Republic, has gorgeous watercolors of aloe and castor leaves on view that she repurposes in her 2022 digitally collaged photograph, “Shield” – a striking complement to the more traditional botanical illustrations.
A personal favorite is “Dibujos con marea (Drawings with the Tide),” a 2024 video documenting Argentinian artist Jimena Croceri making artwork on the shore. Croceri waits for the waves to wash over her filter paper and outlines the wet marks in blue. The results are in two drawings to the right; it’s lovely to see those ripples in a still format. After seeing the patience that Croceri has taken with her own work, you feel compelled to sit with them and experience that same stillness.
Another highlight is “A Diary of Flowers (every moment picture your heart)” made in the 1990s by Jim Hodges on paper napkins; pins hold up 51 parts like butterfly taxidermy – but instead of holding dead things in place, they bring Hodges’ pieces to life. Each drawing is exquisite and delicate, made with a simple blue or black pen. Some napkins are tinged with coffee stains or touched with wrinkles.
The show’s impact far exceeds its small room on the museum’s ground floor. Madeline Murphy Turner, a curatorial fellow at the museum, organized the installation. She has a light touch; her wall labels are smart and not too heavy-handed.
The majority of the works on view were acquired by the museum in 2024, adding to their fresh feel.
“Drawn to Earth: Contemporary Art and Environment in the Americas” through Oct. 5 at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.