Environment is Us

How do humans relate to nature in these times of ecological crisis? In 2023, Museum Kranenburgh will present the latest work by Spanish artist Cristina Lucas (1973). In Lucas’ work, nature is not a romanticized green thing, far away and separate from humans, but intertwined with economic and political systems of power. With her work, she encourages you to look differently at the interaction between humans and their environment, and thus also at the way you relate to your environment. The strict separation between living people and the (seemingly) lifeless environment fades in her works, in which a network of relationships emerges.

The exhibition focuses on a group of works in which the elements play a role. Lucas explores the entanglement between humans and the environment by creating art with the chemical elements found in nature, but also in the human body, such as calcium, iron, and iodine. The result is a remarkable group of colorful works. Another theme in the exhibition is works made from materials linked to the petrochemical industry, with which Lucas zooms in on the history of the energy sources that make our daily lives possible. Finally, Lucas highlights cobalt, an element that plays a major role in art history, but is also crucial in the energy transition and the human body.

About the artist

Spanish artist Cristina Lucas (1973) works in various media: performance, photography, installation art, painting, and sculpture. From 2006 to 2007, she was artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie postgraduate institute in Amsterdam. In her work, Lucas focuses on pressing contemporary issues of a feminist, political, and ecological nature. In doing so, she maintains a subtle balance between a playful style and conceptual acuity.