Opening Reception: Rimer Cardillo

Erin Shapiro, Director and CEO, and the Board of Directors at Plains Art Museum invite you to the opening reception of Rimer Cardillo: Sacred Natures.

Remarks by Rimer Cardillo / 7 pm
Hors d’oeuvres by Urban Foods Catering
Cash bar

Admission is free
Museum members receive one complimentary beverage.
Become a member today: bit.ly/40gKrtu

For more than five decades, Rimer Cardillo’s artwork has offered a powerful commentary on the intersection of political oppression and ecological degradation.

Deep Ecology suggests that the systemic loss of Indigenous communities is linked to the destruction of ecosystems, wildlife, and biodiversity. The artist’s work challenges viewers to reconsider their relationship with nature and underscores the moral imperative to protect it.

The exhibition brings together a selection of Cardillo’s mixed media works incorporating paper, clay, wood, metal and organic materials. Moving fluidly across printmaking, sculpture and installation, Cardillo creates haunting ecological tableaux that ask us to confront what has been lost—and what fragile systems remain.

His work draws from both scientific knowledge and ancestral traditions, offering tributes to the sacredness of land, species, and memory. Cardillo studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Montevideo, the Berlin Weißensee School of Art, and the Leipzig School of Arts. He has lived in the United States since 1979, and taught printmaking at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Cardillo was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997, represented Uruguay at the Venice Biennale in 2001, and has exhibited extensively throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His work is held in many public and private collections around the world.

Exhibition support provided by the Judith Godwin Foundation. Free general admission generously supported by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.