San Diego State University and the SDSU School of Art and Design present The Imaginary Amazon, a group exhibition of contemporary and historical art, and material culture exploring the topic of representations of the Amazon Rainforest region.

The exhibition will be on view from Thursday, March 7 – Thursday, May 2 in the University Art Gallery at the SDSU School of Art and Design (5500 Campanile Drive). Hours are Tuesdays through Thursdays from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Addressing themes including visual culture, history, ecology, extraction, cartography, botany, imperialism, Indigenous metaphysics, and the nature of representation itself, The Imaginary Amazon includes artworks in different media by trained and self-taught artists, including Indigenous artists from the Amazon region and those who live outside it.

Following the unprecedented devastation of the Amazon at the hands of global capitalist interests and recent environmental crises, this exhibition presents a multitude of perspectives on the region. The selection of artworks ranges from colonial images of “primitive” and “Edenic” lands ripe for plundering and stereotyped images of exotic jungles to botanical representations of the flora and fauna by Indigenous artists who reside in these lands. The Amazon is one of the planet’s most endangered ecosystems, but its recent unprecedented fires, droughts, and ongoing deforestation suggest that there may come a day when it will cease to exist altogether, only surviving in shared imaginations.

Gillian Sneed, assistant professor of Art History in the School of Art and Design at SDSU, curates The Imaginary Amazon. The exhibition emerged, in part, from Sneed’s research on Brazilian art and her ongoing collaborations with The Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies.

“I have been researching some of the artists in this exhibition for over a decade, while others are more recent discoveries,” said Sneed. “The themes of this exhibition could not be more urgent. The Amazon Rainforest region is home to 10% of all the plant and wildlife species we know of and helps stabilize our global climate, but recent droughts, fires, and deforestation are rendering this fragile region more endangered now than ever before. Scientists are warning that the Amazon may be approaching a point of no return. This exhibition raises awareness around this pressing contemporary crisis, and sheds light on the threat faced by the Indigenous populations who reside in these areas and how they are fighting to preserve their culture and environment.”

Artists in the exhibition include Sergio Allevato (b. 1971, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Denilson Baniwa (b. 1984, Rio Negro, Brazil), Pedro Barateiro (b. 1979, Lisbon), Nelson Leirner (1932-2020, Brazil), Anna Bella Geiger(b. 1933, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (b. 1971, Alto Orinoco, Venezuela), Santiago Yahuarcani (b. 1961, Pucaurquillo, Peru) Abel Rodríguez (Mogaje Guihu) (b. ca. 1941, La Chorrera, Amazonas, Colombia), Melanie Smith (b. 1965, Poole, England), Margaret Mee (1909–1988, England),Miguel Rio Branco (b. 1946, Las Palmas, Spain), Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858) and Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848).

Artist Sergio Allevato describes his work in the exhibition as “deeply rooted in the cultural history of Brazil. It aims to bridge diverse perspectives by delving into the concepts of identity and belonging, portrayed through the representation of flora and fauna. It engages with themes ranging from environment preservation to the intricate narratives of colonization and imperialism. I firmly believe this exhibition is a crucial conduit for nurturing cross-cultural dialogue.”

The Imaginary Amazon is organized by the SDSU Art Galleries and curated by Sneed.

Support for this exhibition and its programming is provided in part by the School of Art and Design, the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts, Arts Alive SDSU, the Division of Research and Innovation, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies, the Consulate General of Brazil in Los Angeles, the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD), and the Camões Institute.