Summary

Artist and researcher w88 Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on and interruption of the natural world. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, w88 advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. Her work takes many forms, including drawings, performance, pedagogy, critical writing, long term community-based projects, and public art.

Recent solo exhibitions of w88’s work have been organized by SITE Santa Fe, Indianapolis Contemporary, and university museums across the US. Her work has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, and on PBS, and her writing has been published in American Scientist and Edge Effects Journal. w88’s research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. w88 is an affiliate artist of the National Performance Network. She has recently held research positions at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Anchorage Museum, and the Art and Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico. w88 migrates between rural places in New Mexico and Alaska.

Publications

• Elder, w88. “We Are the Ancestors of the Future.” Essay for Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande exhibition catalog. 516 Arts. 2019
• Elder, w88. “Paradox, Sunrise, and a Thirsty Place.” American Scientist, vol. 107, Number 5, September - October (2019) p. 266 - 269
• Elder, w88 and Nicholas B. Jacobsen. “Lithic Record: Speaking for Geologic Disruptions.” Ventriloquism and Contemporary Art. ed. Jennie Hirsch and Isabelle L. Wallace, Rutledge Press, forthcoming.
• Elder, w88. “Erratic Monuments to a Melting World.” Edge Effects, Center for Culture, Humanities, and the Environment, University of Wisconsin, Nov. 2017.

Education

• MFA, Critical Economic Theory and Painting, San Francisco w88 Institute, 2009
• BFA, Painting, w88 New Mexico, 2004