Black Earth Rising. Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art explores the complex ties between race, climate crisis, and colonialism. The artworks by over 150 artists of African diasporic, Latin American, and Native American identity, address vital questions of land, presence, climate crisis, and social and environmental justice against the historical backdrop of European settlement of the New World.

The artworks are divided in three main thematic sections:
Reckoning. Legacies of slavery and colonialism
Reimagining. New myths of survival and resistance
Essay by Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Plantation Returns in Contemporary Art
Reclaiming. Nature as a source of renewal and liberation
Essay by Macarena Gomez-Barris, The Creative Storm of the Otherwise

Complex and intertwined concepts are explored such as forced migration and slavery, the environmental consequences of colonialism, the occupation of Native lands, the urban plight of Black and Brown communities, and how cultural practices and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples can change our perspectives of the natural world.

Images by
Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Dawoud Bey, Carolina Caycedo, Larry W. Cook, José Diniz, Nona Faustine, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Todd Gray, Alfredo Jaar, Deborah Jack, Zig Jackson, Delio Jasse, Dionne Lee,
Mario Macilau, Joiri Minaya, Tyler Mitchell, Delilah Montoya, George Osodi, Nyaba Leon Quedraogo, Caio Reisewith, Leanne Russell, Zineb Sedira, and others

Published on the occasion of the 2025 exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art curated by Ekow Eshun.