{"id":3166,"date":"2016-08-17T11:24:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T15:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/designlife\/?p=3166"},"modified":"2016-08-17T11:24:51","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T15:24:51","slug":"greg-lindquist-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/2016\/08\/17\/greg-lindquist-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA Diversity of Voices\u201d: Greg Lindquist\u2019s Environmental Painting Installations"},"content":{"rendered":"

A portion of the walls in the North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s (NCMA) East Building are washed in layers of brilliant chartreuse and unlikely indigo paint. Dashes of murky brown are stippled with gentler pinks and lavenders. The colors feel both exotic and artificial at the same time, and the landscapes they suggest are artist Greg Lindquist\u2019s [BAD, LAN \u201903] interpretation of the coal ash pollution on the Dan River near Eden, NC, and Danville, VA.<\/p>\n

There is beauty in Lindquist\u2019s installation, called Smoke and Water<\/em><\/a>, which immerses the viewer and draws them into the \u201cswirling vortices of coal ash\u201d he describes in an interview with the museum that float for about 24 hours on the river\u2019s surface before sinking from the weight of toxic heavy metals like selenium, arsenic, lead, and mercury. And there is ambiguity\u2014these metals are poisoning water sources by introducing cancer-causing agents, and deforming the pug-nosed fish that locals eat.<\/p>\n

Sitting with artist Greg Lindquist and discussing his installation, Smoke and Water at the North Carolina Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cArt can deal with contradiction in a complex way,\u201d says Lindquist. \u201cThis is probably the most challenging thing for people. I think looking at something beautiful that\u2019s depicting something ugly is confusing in terms of a Platonic ideal\u2014that things look as they are, and that they represent what they do. When you crisscross those wires, it shorts people\u2019s brains in weird ways. That\u2019s an interesting contradiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Lindquist doesn\u2019t identify as an activist, he hopes to broaden awareness of the pollution caused by Duke Energy\u2019s plant spill near Eden, NC, in February 2014, as well as a larger problem with Duke Energy plants leaking coal ash and toxic chemicals from unlined coal ash dumps. He spent four months as the NCMA\u2019s Teen Arts Council artist-in-residence this spring, where he led discussions on environmental concerns and printed images representing the teens\u2019 top five topics for an interactive exhibit. He also installed *Smoke and Water<\/em> in this period, with contributions from the teens, locals, and students of the College of Design.<\/p>\n*
$\"GLindquist\"$ <\/a>Associate Professor of Art + Design Pat FitzGerald brought two of his studio drawing classes in to complete the paintings, which had to be installed in five days. \u201cWe spent an afternoon helping Greg paint from projections cast on the wall. The students really enjoyed it, and Greg shared stories of some of his efforts as a young artist in New York City. We are very proud of Greg and glad to have him back in North Carolina. His intelligence, talent, and concern for environmental causes are an inspiration to me and to the students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindquist, who received an MFA in painting and an MA in art history from the Pratt Institute in 2008, has also used this process in a 2014 version of the project Smoke and Water <\/em>in Wilmington. He made digital sketches using photos taken of the spill by local activists to inspire his paintings and projected these onto the walls, then invited residents to join in the installation process. Their statements became a part of the exhibit, testimonials to the impact of the pollution on communities in North Carolina and Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to reconcile letting go of the control of wanting to do it all myself,\u201d Lindquist says. After all, each of his original paintings require at least two months to complete. \u201cEach touch is different, the way each participant paints is different, which I love. You can dissect the mural if you look carefully, and see all kinds of different brushstrokes, which is really a diversity of the voices of over 100 people working on it. I don\u2019t think viewers realize this because it appears made by one singular creator.\u201d<\/p>\n
*In a statement on his process, Lindquist writes that through these efforts, he hopes to \u201cturn our collective anxiety into action.\u201d<\/p>\n*
\u201cEnvironmental issues are social issues,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey disproportionately affect people of color and people of the lower classes. There is no coincidence that these electric plants are located on bodies of water because of the cooling mechanisms they need, and in areas of economic depression because poor people can\u2019t fight corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n
$\"background$ <\/a>Producing these works not only makes more people aware of the issues but gives community members a space to participate in spreading awareness. And, through his use of line and color, texture and shape, Lindquist believes his works are inviting and accessible to people without an education in art history or a knowledge of Impressionism. \u201cI think what this installation can accomplish and what art can accomplish is engaging and exciting people and inviting curiosity and inspiration. Although I don\u2019t know if people actually connect the impact of what will happen to the environment, I want this to bring people closer to these discoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindquist grew up in Wilmington, \u201con the beach and in the water,\u201d he says. His father, marine biologist David Lindquist, is celebrated for installing old boxcars off the coast of North Carolina to create artificial reefs that support a greater variety of marine life. The younger Lindquist recalls spending his summers outdoors and camping with the Boy Scouts of America. For his Eagle Scout Service Project, he built a butterfly garden on top of a landfill across the highway from Duke Energy\u2019s Sutton Steam Plant at Sutton Lake, which is now depicted in one of his paintings. \u201cIt is full circle. It fits in with the trajectory of the work; I\u2019ve been hovering around these same ideas, but they\u2019ve become more clearly articulated.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, Lindquist has been working with the Newtown Creek Alliance in Brooklyn, NY, to highlight similar environmental concerns on the Newtown Creek. The creek runs 3.5 miles from the East River to Bushwick and Williamsburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the third most polluted water in the US; since the industrial revolution on, people dumped everything in the creek from bone blacking plants that made coal tar to black wax for wagons, but also there was a huge oil spill by Exxon in the \u201980s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindquist has been taking artists onto the creek in rowboats to make plein air (a phrase borrowed from French that translates to \u201copen air\u201d) paintings of the river. \u201cWe bring people out on the water, they make images, and those images circulate,\u201d he says. And hopefully their impact will reach far and wide, bringing the concerns of the communities affected by this pollution to more constituents as well as lawmakers, who have the power to make greater change.<\/p>\n
*Greg Lindquist on His Work in Altered Land<\/a> from The North Carolina Museum of Art<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n*
\n
Greg Lindquist is an artist, a writer, the editor of the Art Books in Review section of The Brooklyn Rail<\/em>, and has taught at the Museum of Modern Art, Parsons School of Design, the Pratt Institute, Ramapo College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the State University of New York at Purchase. The *Smoke and Water<\/em> installation in the* North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s East Building is part of \u201cAltered Land,\u201d<\/a> a show of works by Lindquist and Damian Stamer, another native North Carolinian. The pieces will remain on display until September 11.<\/p>\n
*Story by Julie Steinbacher MFA \u201916<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n*
Julie Steinbacher is a transplant from Parkton, Maryland. She writes science fiction, and her story \u201cChimeras\u201d was a Notable Story in this year\u2019s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives and works in Raleigh, NC, as a freelance writer and editor. To read her fiction, visit http:\/\/julie-steinbacher.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"A portion of the walls in the North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s (NCMA) East Building are washed in layers of brilliant chartreuse and unlikely indigo paint. Dashes of murky brown are stippled with gentler pinks and lavenders. The colors feel both exotic and artificial at the same time, and the landscapes they suggest are artist Greg Lindquist\u2019s [BAD, LAN \u201903] interpretation of the coal ash pollution on the Dan River near Eden, NC, and Danville, VA.\n\nThere is beauty in Lindquist\u2019s installation, called Smoke and Water<\/em><\/a>, which immerses the viewer and draws them into the \u201cswirling vortices of coal ash\u201d he describes in an interview with the museum that float for about 24 hours on the river\u2019s surface before sinking from the weight of toxic heavy metals like selenium, arsenic, lead, and mercury. And there is ambiguity\u2014these metals are poisoning water sources by introducing cancer-causing agents, and deforming the pug-nosed fish that locals eat.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_3169\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"900\"] $\"Background$ <\/a> Sitting with artist Greg Lindquist and discussing his installation, Smoke and Water at the North Carolina Museum of Art.[\/caption]\n\n\u201cArt can deal with contradiction in a complex way,\u201d says Lindquist. \u201cThis is probably the most challenging thing for people. I think looking at something beautiful that\u2019s depicting something ugly is confusing in terms of a Platonic ideal\u2014that things look as they are, and that they represent what they do. When you crisscross those wires, it shorts people\u2019s brains in weird ways. That\u2019s an interesting contradiction.\u201d\n\nAlthough Lindquist doesn\u2019t identify as an activist, he hopes to broaden awareness of the pollution caused by Duke Energy\u2019s plant spill near Eden, NC, in February 2014, as well as a larger problem with Duke Energy plants leaking coal ash and toxic chemicals from unlined coal ash dumps. He spent four months as the NCMA\u2019s Teen Arts Council artist-in-residence this spring, where he led discussions on environmental concerns and printed images representing the teens\u2019 top five topics for an interactive exhibit. He also installed *Smoke and Water<\/em> in this period, with contributions from the teens, locals, and students of the College of Design.\n\n* $\"GLindquist\"$ <\/a>Associate Professor of Art + Design Pat FitzGerald brought two of his studio drawing classes in to complete the paintings, which had to be installed in five days. \u201cWe spent an afternoon helping Greg paint from projections cast on the wall. The students really enjoyed it, and Greg shared stories of some of his efforts as a young artist in New York City. We are very proud of Greg and glad to have him back in North Carolina. His intelligence, talent, and concern for environmental causes are an inspiration to me and to the students.\u201d\n\nLindquist, who received an MFA in painting and an MA in art history from the Pratt Institute in 2008, has also used this process in a 2014 version of the project Smoke and Water <\/em>in Wilmington. He made digital sketches using photos taken of the spill by local activists to inspire his paintings and projected these onto the walls, then invited residents to join in the installation process. Their statements became a part of the exhibit, testimonials to the impact of the pollution on communities in North Carolina and Virginia.\n\n\u201cI had to reconcile letting go of the control of wanting to do it all myself,\u201d Lindquist says. After all, each of his original paintings require at least two months to complete. \u201cEach touch is different, the way each participant paints is different, which I love. You can dissect the mural if you look carefully, and see all kinds of different brushstrokes, which is really a diversity of the voices of over 100 people working on it. I don\u2019t think viewers realize this because it appears made by one singular creator.\u201d\n\nIn a statement on his process, Lindquist writes that through these efforts, he hopes to \u201cturn our collective anxiety into action.\u201d\n\n\u201cEnvironmental issues are social issues,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey disproportionately affect people of color and people of the lower classes. There is no coincidence that these electric plants are located on bodies of water because of the cooling mechanisms they need, and in areas of economic depression because poor people can\u2019t fight corporations.\u201d\n\n $\"background$ <\/a>Producing these works not only makes more people aware of the issues but gives community members a space to participate in spreading awareness. And, through his use of line and color, texture and shape, Lindquist believes his works are inviting and accessible to people without an education in art history or a knowledge of Impressionism. \u201cI think what this installation can accomplish and what art can accomplish is engaging and exciting people and inviting curiosity and inspiration. Although I don\u2019t know if people actually connect the impact of what will happen to the environment, I want this to bring people closer to these discoveries.\u201d\n\nLindquist grew up in Wilmington, \u201con the beach and in the water,\u201d he says. His father, marine biologist David Lindquist, is celebrated for installing old boxcars off the coast of North Carolina to create artificial reefs that support a greater variety of marine life. The younger Lindquist recalls spending his summers outdoors and camping with the Boy Scouts of America. For his Eagle Scout Service Project, he built a butterfly garden on top of a landfill across the highway from Duke Energy\u2019s Sutton Steam Plant at Sutton Lake, which is now depicted in one of his paintings. \u201cIt is full circle. It fits in with the trajectory of the work; I\u2019ve been hovering around these same ideas, but they\u2019ve become more clearly articulated.\u201d\n\nMore recently, Lindquist has been working with the Newtown Creek Alliance in Brooklyn, NY, to highlight similar environmental concerns on the Newtown Creek. The creek runs 3.5 miles from the East River to Bushwick and Williamsburg.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s the third most polluted water in the US; since the industrial revolution on, people dumped everything in the creek from bone blacking plants that made coal tar to black wax for wagons, but also there was a huge oil spill by Exxon in the \u201980s.\u201d\n\nLindquist has been taking artists onto the creek in rowboats to make plein air (a phrase borrowed from French that translates to \u201copen air\u201d) paintings of the river. \u201cWe bring people out on the water, they make images, and those images circulate,\u201d he says. And hopefully their impact will reach far and wide, bringing the concerns of the communities affected by this pollution to more constituents as well as lawmakers, who have the power to make greater change.\n\n\n\n Greg Lindquist on His Work in Altered Land<\/a> from The North Carolina Museum of Art<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.\n\n
\n\nGreg Lindquist is an artist, a writer, the editor of the Art Books in Review section of The Brooklyn Rail<\/em>, and has taught at the Museum of Modern Art, Parsons School of Design, the Pratt Institute, Ramapo College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the State University of New York at Purchase. The *Smoke and Water<\/em> installation in the* North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s East Building is part of \u201cAltered Land,\u201d<\/a> a show of works by Lindquist and Damian Stamer, another native North Carolinian. The pieces will remain on display until September 11.\n\nStory by Julie Steinbacher MFA \u201916<\/em><\/span>\n\nJulie Steinbacher is a transplant from Parkton, Maryland. She writes science fiction, and her story \u201cChimeras\u201d was a Notable Story in this year\u2019s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives and works in Raleigh, NC, as a freelance writer and editor. To read her fiction, visit http:\/\/julie-steinbacher.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greg Lindquist [BAD, LAN ’03] recently unveiled a new art installation at the North Carolina Museum of Art where his use of vivid paint colors are his create medium to interpret the coal ash pollution on the Dan River near Eden, NC, and Danville, VA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-3166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-uncategorized","tag-art-design"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Sitting with artist Greg Lindquist and discussing his installation, Smoke and Water at the North Carolina Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cArt can deal with contradiction in a complex way,\u201d says Lindquist. \u201cThis is probably the most challenging thing for people. I think looking at something beautiful that\u2019s depicting something ugly is confusing in terms of a Platonic ideal\u2014that things look as they are, and that they represent what they do. When you crisscross those wires, it shorts people\u2019s brains in weird ways. That\u2019s an interesting contradiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Lindquist doesn\u2019t identify as an activist, he hopes to broaden awareness of the pollution caused by Duke Energy\u2019s plant spill near Eden, NC, in February 2014, as well as a larger problem with Duke Energy plants leaking coal ash and toxic chemicals from unlined coal ash dumps. He spent four months as the NCMA\u2019s Teen Arts Council artist-in-residence this spring, where he led discussions on environmental concerns and printed images representing the teens\u2019 top five topics for an interactive exhibit. He also installed *Smoke and Water<\/em> in this period, with contributions from the teens, locals, and students of the College of Design.<\/p>\n*
$\"GLindquist\"$ <\/a>Associate Professor of Art + Design Pat FitzGerald brought two of his studio drawing classes in to complete the paintings, which had to be installed in five days. \u201cWe spent an afternoon helping Greg paint from projections cast on the wall. The students really enjoyed it, and Greg shared stories of some of his efforts as a young artist in New York City. We are very proud of Greg and glad to have him back in North Carolina. His intelligence, talent, and concern for environmental causes are an inspiration to me and to the students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindquist, who received an MFA in painting and an MA in art history from the Pratt Institute in 2008, has also used this process in a 2014 version of the project Smoke and Water <\/em>in Wilmington. He made digital sketches using photos taken of the spill by local activists to inspire his paintings and projected these onto the walls, then invited residents to join in the installation process. Their statements became a part of the exhibit, testimonials to the impact of the pollution on communities in North Carolina and Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to reconcile letting go of the control of wanting to do it all myself,\u201d Lindquist says. After all, each of his original paintings require at least two months to complete. \u201cEach touch is different, the way each participant paints is different, which I love. You can dissect the mural if you look carefully, and see all kinds of different brushstrokes, which is really a diversity of the voices of over 100 people working on it. I don\u2019t think viewers realize this because it appears made by one singular creator.\u201d<\/p>\n
*In a statement on his process, Lindquist writes that through these efforts, he hopes to \u201cturn our collective anxiety into action.\u201d<\/p>\n*
\u201cEnvironmental issues are social issues,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey disproportionately affect people of color and people of the lower classes. There is no coincidence that these electric plants are located on bodies of water because of the cooling mechanisms they need, and in areas of economic depression because poor people can\u2019t fight corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n
$\"background$ <\/a>Producing these works not only makes more people aware of the issues but gives community members a space to participate in spreading awareness. And, through his use of line and color, texture and shape, Lindquist believes his works are inviting and accessible to people without an education in art history or a knowledge of Impressionism. \u201cI think what this installation can accomplish and what art can accomplish is engaging and exciting people and inviting curiosity and inspiration. Although I don\u2019t know if people actually connect the impact of what will happen to the environment, I want this to bring people closer to these discoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindquist grew up in Wilmington, \u201con the beach and in the water,\u201d he says. His father, marine biologist David Lindquist, is celebrated for installing old boxcars off the coast of North Carolina to create artificial reefs that support a greater variety of marine life. The younger Lindquist recalls spending his summers outdoors and camping with the Boy Scouts of America. For his Eagle Scout Service Project, he built a butterfly garden on top of a landfill across the highway from Duke Energy\u2019s Sutton Steam Plant at Sutton Lake, which is now depicted in one of his paintings. \u201cIt is full circle. It fits in with the trajectory of the work; I\u2019ve been hovering around these same ideas, but they\u2019ve become more clearly articulated.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, Lindquist has been working with the Newtown Creek Alliance in Brooklyn, NY, to highlight similar environmental concerns on the Newtown Creek. The creek runs 3.5 miles from the East River to Bushwick and Williamsburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the third most polluted water in the US; since the industrial revolution on, people dumped everything in the creek from bone blacking plants that made coal tar to black wax for wagons, but also there was a huge oil spill by Exxon in the \u201980s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindquist has been taking artists onto the creek in rowboats to make plein air (a phrase borrowed from French that translates to \u201copen air\u201d) paintings of the river. \u201cWe bring people out on the water, they make images, and those images circulate,\u201d he says. And hopefully their impact will reach far and wide, bringing the concerns of the communities affected by this pollution to more constituents as well as lawmakers, who have the power to make greater change.<\/p>\n
*Greg Lindquist on His Work in Altered Land<\/a> from The North Carolina Museum of Art<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n*
\n
Greg Lindquist is an artist, a writer, the editor of the Art Books in Review section of The Brooklyn Rail<\/em>, and has taught at the Museum of Modern Art, Parsons School of Design, the Pratt Institute, Ramapo College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the State University of New York at Purchase. The *Smoke and Water<\/em> installation in the* North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s East Building is part of \u201cAltered Land,\u201d<\/a> a show of works by Lindquist and Damian Stamer, another native North Carolinian. The pieces will remain on display until September 11.<\/p>\n
*Story by Julie Steinbacher MFA \u201916<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n*
Julie Steinbacher is a transplant from Parkton, Maryland. She writes science fiction, and her story \u201cChimeras\u201d was a Notable Story in this year\u2019s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives and works in Raleigh, NC, as a freelance writer and editor. To read her fiction, visit http:\/\/julie-steinbacher.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"A portion of the walls in the North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s (NCMA) East Building are washed in layers of brilliant chartreuse and unlikely indigo paint. Dashes of murky brown are stippled with gentler pinks and lavenders. The colors feel both exotic and artificial at the same time, and the landscapes they suggest are artist Greg Lindquist\u2019s [BAD, LAN \u201903] interpretation of the coal ash pollution on the Dan River near Eden, NC, and Danville, VA.\n\nThere is beauty in Lindquist\u2019s installation, called Smoke and Water<\/em><\/a>, which immerses the viewer and draws them into the \u201cswirling vortices of coal ash\u201d he describes in an interview with the museum that float for about 24 hours on the river\u2019s surface before sinking from the weight of toxic heavy metals like selenium, arsenic, lead, and mercury. And there is ambiguity\u2014these metals are poisoning water sources by introducing cancer-causing agents, and deforming the pug-nosed fish that locals eat.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_3169\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"900\"] $\"Background$ <\/a> Sitting with artist Greg Lindquist and discussing his installation, Smoke and Water at the North Carolina Museum of Art.[\/caption]\n\n\u201cArt can deal with contradiction in a complex way,\u201d says Lindquist. \u201cThis is probably the most challenging thing for people. I think looking at something beautiful that\u2019s depicting something ugly is confusing in terms of a Platonic ideal\u2014that things look as they are, and that they represent what they do. When you crisscross those wires, it shorts people\u2019s brains in weird ways. That\u2019s an interesting contradiction.\u201d\n\nAlthough Lindquist doesn\u2019t identify as an activist, he hopes to broaden awareness of the pollution caused by Duke Energy\u2019s plant spill near Eden, NC, in February 2014, as well as a larger problem with Duke Energy plants leaking coal ash and toxic chemicals from unlined coal ash dumps. He spent four months as the NCMA\u2019s Teen Arts Council artist-in-residence this spring, where he led discussions on environmental concerns and printed images representing the teens\u2019 top five topics for an interactive exhibit. He also installed *Smoke and Water<\/em> in this period, with contributions from the teens, locals, and students of the College of Design.\n\n* $\"GLindquist\"$ <\/a>Associate Professor of Art + Design Pat FitzGerald brought two of his studio drawing classes in to complete the paintings, which had to be installed in five days. \u201cWe spent an afternoon helping Greg paint from projections cast on the wall. The students really enjoyed it, and Greg shared stories of some of his efforts as a young artist in New York City. We are very proud of Greg and glad to have him back in North Carolina. His intelligence, talent, and concern for environmental causes are an inspiration to me and to the students.\u201d\n\nLindquist, who received an MFA in painting and an MA in art history from the Pratt Institute in 2008, has also used this process in a 2014 version of the project Smoke and Water <\/em>in Wilmington. He made digital sketches using photos taken of the spill by local activists to inspire his paintings and projected these onto the walls, then invited residents to join in the installation process. Their statements became a part of the exhibit, testimonials to the impact of the pollution on communities in North Carolina and Virginia.\n\n\u201cI had to reconcile letting go of the control of wanting to do it all myself,\u201d Lindquist says. After all, each of his original paintings require at least two months to complete. \u201cEach touch is different, the way each participant paints is different, which I love. You can dissect the mural if you look carefully, and see all kinds of different brushstrokes, which is really a diversity of the voices of over 100 people working on it. I don\u2019t think viewers realize this because it appears made by one singular creator.\u201d\n\nIn a statement on his process, Lindquist writes that through these efforts, he hopes to \u201cturn our collective anxiety into action.\u201d\n\n\u201cEnvironmental issues are social issues,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey disproportionately affect people of color and people of the lower classes. There is no coincidence that these electric plants are located on bodies of water because of the cooling mechanisms they need, and in areas of economic depression because poor people can\u2019t fight corporations.\u201d\n\n $\"background$ <\/a>Producing these works not only makes more people aware of the issues but gives community members a space to participate in spreading awareness. And, through his use of line and color, texture and shape, Lindquist believes his works are inviting and accessible to people without an education in art history or a knowledge of Impressionism. \u201cI think what this installation can accomplish and what art can accomplish is engaging and exciting people and inviting curiosity and inspiration. Although I don\u2019t know if people actually connect the impact of what will happen to the environment, I want this to bring people closer to these discoveries.\u201d\n\nLindquist grew up in Wilmington, \u201con the beach and in the water,\u201d he says. His father, marine biologist David Lindquist, is celebrated for installing old boxcars off the coast of North Carolina to create artificial reefs that support a greater variety of marine life. The younger Lindquist recalls spending his summers outdoors and camping with the Boy Scouts of America. For his Eagle Scout Service Project, he built a butterfly garden on top of a landfill across the highway from Duke Energy\u2019s Sutton Steam Plant at Sutton Lake, which is now depicted in one of his paintings. \u201cIt is full circle. It fits in with the trajectory of the work; I\u2019ve been hovering around these same ideas, but they\u2019ve become more clearly articulated.\u201d\n\nMore recently, Lindquist has been working with the Newtown Creek Alliance in Brooklyn, NY, to highlight similar environmental concerns on the Newtown Creek. The creek runs 3.5 miles from the East River to Bushwick and Williamsburg.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s the third most polluted water in the US; since the industrial revolution on, people dumped everything in the creek from bone blacking plants that made coal tar to black wax for wagons, but also there was a huge oil spill by Exxon in the \u201980s.\u201d\n\nLindquist has been taking artists onto the creek in rowboats to make plein air (a phrase borrowed from French that translates to \u201copen air\u201d) paintings of the river. \u201cWe bring people out on the water, they make images, and those images circulate,\u201d he says. And hopefully their impact will reach far and wide, bringing the concerns of the communities affected by this pollution to more constituents as well as lawmakers, who have the power to make greater change.\n\n\n\n Greg Lindquist on His Work in Altered Land<\/a> from The North Carolina Museum of Art<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.\n\n
\n\nGreg Lindquist is an artist, a writer, the editor of the Art Books in Review section of The Brooklyn Rail<\/em>, and has taught at the Museum of Modern Art, Parsons School of Design, the Pratt Institute, Ramapo College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the State University of New York at Purchase. The *Smoke and Water<\/em> installation in the* North Carolina Museum of Art\u2019s East Building is part of \u201cAltered Land,\u201d<\/a> a show of works by Lindquist and Damian Stamer, another native North Carolinian. The pieces will remain on display until September 11.\n\nStory by Julie Steinbacher MFA \u201916<\/em><\/span>\n\nJulie Steinbacher is a transplant from Parkton, Maryland. She writes science fiction, and her story \u201cChimeras\u201d was a Notable Story in this year\u2019s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives and works in Raleigh, NC, as a freelance writer and editor. To read her fiction, visit http:\/\/julie-steinbacher.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greg Lindquist [BAD, LAN ’03] recently unveiled a new art installation at the North Carolina Museum of Art where his use of vivid paint colors are his create medium to interpret the coal ash pollution on the Dan River near Eden, NC, and Danville, VA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-3166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-uncategorized","tag-art-design"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}