Press
Best Art Exhibitions of 2021
“This was the year when public awareness of ecocide reached at least an orange alert level. Direct response from museums and galleries remained muted, with [one of the] notable exceptions being … a survey of early work by the ecofeminist artist Betsy Damon at La MaMa Galleria in Manhattan.”
Art We Saw This Fall
“…radical relics of a time when many artists from oppressed groups were finding their voices through experimentation … almost like creative consciousness-raising.”
Betsy Damon: Passages: Rites & Rituals
“Damon’s work suggests not only how art can more actively engage in changing the world, but also how art must expand our understanding of activism.”
What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now
“…radical relics of a time when many artists from oppressed groups were finding their voices through experimentation … almost like creative consciousness-raising.”
Emergency Art History. Monika Fabijanska in Conversation
“All this led to a radical departure from traditional art presentation in gallery space…”
What Ecofeminist Artists Learned from Indigenous Cultures
“Early ecofeminists such as Rahmani, Denes, Damon, and Ana Mendieta—all represented here by photo-documentation of iconic pieces from the late ’70s and early ’80s—incorporated their own bodies into works about the land, creating a formal repertoire on which subsequent generations of artists have drawn.”
As Galleries Reopen, Two Critics Find Rewards Eclipse the Angst
“[ecofeminism(s)] features 15 artists of different generations whose feminism is grounded in ecological concerns.”
Ecofeminist Art Takes Root
“[A Memory of Clean Water (1985)] is a landmark work in Damon’s oeuvre, but it also signifies a moment of reckoning in which she decided that her activism had to employ new tactics and take new forms to be effective.”
ecofeminism(s)
“The most striking physical presence in the show is Betsy Damon’s The Memory of Clean Water (1985)…”
Water Works: Living Waters of Larimer
“This “integrated rainwater catchment infrastructure” is another way to say ‘using every last drop’.”
An American in Chengdu, China Finds Trial and Tribute in Water
Ms. Damon persevered, and is now one of China's most sought-after environmentalists. Several cities have asked her to build similar parks, and the State Environmental Protection Agency offered her an office to work from as she coordinates work across China. "I guess in the end they realized that I'm just an artist who is nuts about water," she says.
Rare Chemistry: Art joins science in water projects
In a pairing as unlikely as Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts or snowmobiles and Florida, Betsy Damon is trying to bring together artists and scientists for projects on the dangers of water pollution.
An Honest Look at Old Dreams
“…feminism rests easy on these artists. They are past cutting themselves off from their heritage as women.”