The Moody Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the groundbreaking exhibition Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, currently on view at the Hammer Museum at UCLA, will be presented in its Houston galleries from January 24 to May 10, 2025. This timely exhibition considers art practices that address the climate crisis and its inevitable intersection with issues of equity and social justice. The Moody's iteration of Breath(e) will feature a selection of local and international artists, as well as new and modified works responding directly to Houston and the Gulf Coast. Exhibiting artists are Brandon Ballengée, Mel Chin, Tiffany Chung, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Michael Joo, Xin Liu, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Yoshitomo Nara, Roxy Paine, Garnett Puett, Sandy Rodriguez, Sarah Rosalena, Clarissa Tossin, and Jin-me Yoon.  

Originally curated for the Hammer Museum by Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake as a part of Getty's California-wide initiative PST ART: Art & Science Collide, the presentation of Breath(e) at the Moody extends the conversation about climate change and environmental justice from California to the Gulf Coast region of Texas, the center of the energy industry in the United States. To this end, the exhibition presents a range of works that respond directly to its local geographical context and the Moody gallery spaces.

For example, Cannupa Hanska Luger will produce a new, two-channel video centered on Houston to complement his sculptural installation Sovereign, an extension of his ongoing Future Ancestral Technologies series. Xin Liu,artist-in-residence at Rice University’s Houston Asian American Archive (HAAA), will create a Houston-themed sculpture made of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastics, surrounded by liquid enzymes that will degrade the work over the course of the exhibition. Jin-me Yoon will design a site-specific version of her eighteen-channel video installation Turning Time (Pacific Flyways) (2022), and Brandon Ballengée, based in Louisiana, whose featured works address the impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on native species in the Gulf of Mexico, will lead creative community workshops.

The exhibition's opening reception, January 24, 6 to 8 p.m.(CST), will include comments from artists Xin Liu, Tiffany Chung, and Cannupa Hanska Luger.

Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and guest curated by Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake with Jennifer Buonocore-Nedrelow, PST Fellow. The Moody Center for the Arts presentation is organized by Alison Weaver, Executive Director.

Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice is made possible through lead grants from Getty as part of their PST Art: Art & Science Collide initiative.

The Moody presentation is made possible by Teiger Foundation, with major support from the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle. Additional support is provided by the Elizabeth Lee Moody Excellence Fund for the Arts, the Thomas D. and Pamela Riley Smith Endowment, and the Libbie Rice Shearn Moody Fund for the Arts.