Justin Brice Guariglia

To mark Earth Day 2019, Justin Brice Guariglia presented REDUCE SPEED NOW!, a project commissioned by Somerset House in London to bring together international perspectives on the world’s ecological crisis.

Using a series of large solar-powered LED signs usually seen on motorways, Guariglia shares works that consider the global climate crisis from the perspective of poets, writers, and philosophers from around the world and explores how people can navigate the complex issues surrounding the subject through different languages.

The signs display aphorisms, poetry, and excerpts from literature from these international voices, engaging in ideas of sustainability and innovation.

As part of the DISPLACEMENT project, Guariglia proposes a special edition of the work focusing on the specific impacts of climate change on displacement.

Justin Brice Guariglia (b. 1974) is an American visual and conceptual artist known for his photographic, sculptural and installation based works that explore the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Guariglia has frequently collaborated with philosophers, poets, scientists and writers  to forge a deeper understanding of human impact on the planet. Notably, this includes a series of missions he’s flown with NASA scientists, beginning in 2015, to document Greenland’s rapidly changing ice by capturing images that he uses as source material in his work.

Solo shows include Somerset House (London); the Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach); the Fisher Museum (Los Angeles); the Anchorage Museum; and Lincoln Center. Group shows include the 2019 Venice Biennale (official collateral event); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Storm King Arts Center; Anderson Ranch; and Colby College Museum of Art among others. His 2018 public art project Climate Signals, produced by the Climate Museum in collaboration with the New York City Mayor’s Office, was seen across all five boroughs of the City.

Guariglia is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Howard Foundation Fellow at Brown University, a New York Foundation for the Arts Finalist, and was shortlisted for the COAL Art and Environment Prize (France) awarded to artists addressing ecological issues. He currently holds the title of Senior Fellow and Artist-in-Residence at the climate change think tank Woodwell Climate Research Center (formerly Woods Hole Research Center), and is a Distinguished Fellow and Special Envoy to the Ecological Crisis at the Pratt School of Architecture.