Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar RomeroMay 02, 2024

Fellsfjara, Iceland | Zaria Forman

Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar RomeroMay 02, 2024

Grandeur and Fragility: Capturing Vanishing Landscapes in Pastel

For two decades, artist Zaria Forman has traveled the world to bear witness to melting ice and rising sea levels. She meticulously documents the imprint of these forces on rapidly-evolving landscapes, using photo and video to inform highly detailed pastel drawings that convey the urgency of climate change.

On March 14th, Forman’s new exhibition Fellsfjara, Iceland opened at Winston Wächter Fine Art, in New York City. Named for the location of a glacial lagoon on Iceland’s southeastern coast, this exhibition features studies of polar ice that have accumulated on a black sand beach. In magnifying the intricate details of the melting ice, Forman reflects the grandeur and fragility of the Arctic terrain in a warming climate.

[The exhibition closed Saturday May 4th 2024]

*Fellsfjara, Iceland* exhibition view at *Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York*

During her trips to Fellsfjara, Forman encountered ancient, compressed ice with brilliant clarity, revealing unprecedented character and complexity. The work in this exhibition amplifies these details, each crack, bubble and distortion carrying the narrative of the ice’s journey from its prehistoric formation to today.

In close-up views of glacial ice set against the velvety richness of churning Arctic waters and black sand, these works add to Forman’s career-long contemplation of light and ice; of humanity and nature; of time spent and time left. Forman offers a nuanced clarion call, encouraging viewers to notice, appreciate and protect the Earth’s most vulnerable landscapes.

**Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 13, April 24, 2022** | 2024, soft pastel on paper

**Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 7, April 24, 2022** | 2023, soft pastel on paper

A La Luz first came across Forman’s work back in 2018 at her previous exhibition, Overview, which was also held at Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York. Since then, her works, that so thoroughly and vividly portray the fragile yet powerful essence of polar ice, have lingered in our memory. Her pieces possess a hyperrealistic quality, transporting viewers into the very landscapes they depict, while also having a dreamy and unreal feel that highlights their impermanence. It is a reminder that what we are seeing might soon be gone, and it all will be a beautiful memory. Forman’s works show us cold ice, but they are full of warmth. Her pieces are able to touch the viewer’s emotions in a way that all the available data that science has provided doesn’t. It is exactly this immediate emotional response her work creates when it’s experienced what makes the viewer realize the value and importance of these mesmerizing landscapes and the need to care about them.

**Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 11, April 24, 2022** I 2023, Soft pastel on paper

**Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 3, April 22, 2022** | 2023 soft pastel on paper

**Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 5, April 22, 2022** | 2023 soft pastel on paper

In Fellsfjara, Iceland, Forman amplifies the intricate details of the ice formations she encountered, almost as if she was amplifying the voice of these majestic yet vulnerable landscapes. With painstaking detail, she brings to the forefront the captivating complexity of each icy shard, as though viewers themselves are granted the opportunity to peer through a magnifying glass, witnessing the delicate interplay of light and shadow upon the icy surfaces, and feeling a profound connection to the natural wonders depicted. Through Forman’s lens, the ice becomes more than just frozen water—it becomes a symbol of the delicate balance between resilience and fragility in our changing world.

Zaria Forman’s pastel drawings serve as a powerful reminder of the ephemeral nature of our landscapes, prompting us to confront the sobering reality of their impermanence. Amidst this awareness, Forman delicately unveils a sense of tenderness within her pieces—by showing the fragility and intricacy of these ice formations, the vulnerability of these landscapes becomes apparent, compelling viewers to reflect on our collective responsibility towards preserving these precious ecosystems.

“My drawings explore moments of transition, turbulence, and tranquility in the landscape, allowing viewers to emotionally connect with a place they many never have a chance to visit. I choose to portray the beauty as opposed to the devastation… so people might be inspired to protect and preserve them.”

— Zaria Forman

**Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 10, April 22, 2022** | 2023 soft pastel on paper

Zaria Forman documents climate change with pastel drawings. She travels to remote regions of the world to collect images and inspiration for her work, which is exhibited worldwide. She has flown with NASA on several Operation IceBridge missions over Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic Canada. She was featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, PBS, and BBC. She delivered a TEDTalk, and spoke at Amazon, Google, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, exhibited in Banksy’s Dismaland, and was the artist-in-residence aboard the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica. Forman curated the first ever, permanent, polar art exhibitions aboard Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Endurance and the National Geographic Resolution. Her works have appeared in publications such as Vogue, The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, and the Smithsonian Magazine. Forman currently works and resides in upstate New York, and is represented by Winston Wächter Fine Art in New York, NY, and Seattle, WA.

Fellsfjara, Iceland was on view until May 4th 2024 at Winston Wächter Fine Art – a unique opportunity to experience Zaria Forman’s intricate depictions of magnificent and vulnerable polar ice.

zaria forman’s website

Winston Wächter Fine Art

Banner image: Fellsfjara, Iceland, No. 5, April 22, 2022

Gallery images by Izzy Leung

Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero

Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero studied Audiovisual Communication BA (Hons) at the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain. During those years he was awarded an Erasmus grant that allowed him to study Film and Communication at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris. He lived and worked in Lisbon thanks to a Leonardo Da Vinci grant and in London. Gonzaga has also developed his work in the UK, Spain, France, Morocco, India and Malta. He has exhibited in Spain, India and the USA. He is currently the Co-director of A LA LUZ, an arts organisation that focuses on documenting contemporary art with film and photography and disseminating it to a global audience. He also works with ‘Joya: arte + ecología‘, a non-profit arts organisation based at Cortijada Los Gázquez, in the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park (Almería, Andalucía), where he collaborates with artist and scientists from all over the world. Gonzaga also collaborates in audiovisual projects as director of photography and film editor.