Artist Kariann Fuqua will visit the Fine Arts Center at WSU from 4:30–6 p.m. Feb. 29 and give a talk on her work, which is on display in Gallery 2 of the center, in the center auditorium.

The Artist Talk is free of cost with no registration required, art professor Squeak Meisel said. The audience will have a chance to ask questions and interact with Fuqua during the talk and reception to follow.

The work presented at WSU is from a larger project that portrays how climate change is putting living processes at risk, Fuqua said. She visualizes the answer to the question, “What will happen if we damage this planet so greatly that we are forced to leave?” and how the system would look from both micro and macro perspectives.

“I want my work to draw the viewer in to see beauty in its form,” Fuqua said. “But then realize that I am exploring the destruction of the natural environment.”

The edges in Fuqua’s drawings can indicate a balance or an imbalance of what lies on either side of the lines, she said. “Mark-making” is a mechanism she uses to create movement and energy.

Fuqua said she wishes to convey a sense of radical care that can advocate small actions that can lead to bigger ones.

“We can all play a role in combating the climate crisis, even if it’s in our own backyards,” Fuqua said.

Meisel said the Department of Art’s Visiting Artists and Scholars program aims to give contact and access to practicing artists’ processes and life paths to the students in the art major. The program sheds light on how art provides another way of communicating and understanding that can transcend language, expose hidden truths and engage new perspectives.

Meisel said art is always about a different idea that can reach into a broad array of inspiration and influence.

“Kariann’s work investigates environmental and biological catastrophe, she does so with a lyrical abstraction,” Meisel said.

Fuqua said she is looking forward to her first solo exhibit in 2025 in New York.