Join artist Francesca Gabbiani and curator Catherine Taft - who organized West's current exhibition Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism - for a conversation on how their work considers the subjectivities of natural world and responds to anxieties around environmental degradation. They will address the tenets of ecofeminism, and specifically traditions of female-centered knowledge and spirituality. Gabbiani and Taft will discuss their ongoing research and forthcoming trip to the Arctic Circle to visit the Steilneset Memorial in Vardo, Norway, which commemorates 91 individuals executed for witchcraft in the late 17th century. After their talk, they will bring the audience into the exhibition for a free curator and artist guided tour.
Francesca Gabbiani is an artist living in Los Angeles. Known for her works utilizing dense layers of intricately hand-cut paper, Gabbiani depicts charged realms and landscapes. She contemplates these non-traditional and overlooked landscapes, such as "non-spaces" where nature and urbanization collide, and the California wildfires. Her philosophical approach depicts humanity secondary to Mother Nature, herself an omnipresent force, and alludes to a reckoning we've both caused and are powerless to stop. Gabbiani's work is included among public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Catherine Taft is a curator, writer and deputy director of Los Angeles alternative art space The Brick. She is the curator of Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism currently on view at West Den Haag, in which Gabbiani's latest performance work is featured. She is the recipient of a research fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this project, as well as exhibition grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Foundation, and Tieger Foundation. Her related publication on ecofeminist art will be released in early 2026.
