On May 24, I will have a group exhibition in a local art gallery, with four artist colleagues.

Possible Title: Existential Solutions

Problems that humans need to solve soon to preserve life.

Concept

Human beings have two qualities that are both fundamental for our success and dangerous:

1. Adaptability to most conditions on Earth makes us powerful and diverse, but we can also continue adapting to a slowly changing to unlivable situation. Especially, if some groups in our society are benefiting from concealing the dangerous change from the rest of us. We adapt by changing our environment, and we can go too far by destroying what sustains us.
   My hope is that our will to survive, our ability to control our consumption, and our care for other beings can help us prevent the catastrophic habitat loss.
2. Respect to authority enables us to specialize, to learn from each other, and to organize effectively. But it can also turn into gullibility and credulity, and we can suppress our motivation to thrive and help each other under the manipulative influences of the worst of us.
   Constantly developing ethical codes, critical thinking skills, and self-knowledge could help us tremendously.
3. Intelligence made us amazing and we created elaborate cultures, arts, laws, science, technology, yet we are not good yet in managing information globally and educating enough every member of society. Even a small group of people can gain access to the means of mass destruction and use them violently and stupidly. We need to create and maintain systems what would minimize such risks. Applications of the scientific knowledge and the use of big data must be regulated by the societies.

Exhibition Planning

I am planning to have 5-7 segments of 2D art works on my wall:

1. Habitat and biodiversity loss - collapse of ecosystems, deforestation (10 million hectares per year), soil erosion, elimination of species and individual organisms by humans (rapid loss of species is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate), over-hunting, over-fishing, wild life trade:
   
   1. Power Grab, 15 x 11 inches, acrylic on cotton rag;
   2. Bridal Bird, 15 x 11 inches, acrylic on cotton rag;
   3. Peel Off, 22 x 15 inches, watercolor on cotton rag;
2. Environmental pollution - toxic chemical pollution and waste in air, waters, and land, including agricultural runoff, plastics and micro-plastics;
   1. Splendid Waste, 22 x 15 inches, watercolor on cotton rag;
      A few facts:
      All the hog farms in the US produce a total of about 167 million pounds of waste—equivalent to the waste produced by half the country’s human population. Hog waste is particularly dangerous since it is generally not treated before being released into the environment, leading to surface and groundwater contamination.
      Tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage and industrial chemicals flows every day into the Tijuana River, which then crosses into the US.
      California’s drinking water could cause more than 15,000 excess cancer deaths, it contains arsenic, uranium and other cancerogenous elements. About 47% of cancer cases are caused by arsenic contamination
3. Factory farming and water crisis
   
   1. Desert Rose, 15 x 11 inches, acrylic on cotton;
      This painting depicts a rosa flower disappearing in an extreme dry heat.
      Most of the 100 billion animals living in intensive industrial livestock production farms experience serious levels of suffering. From the birds whose male chicks are ground up alive, to pregnant immobilized pigs , to dairy cows staying alive only a quarter of their lives, to the slaughter.
      The animal agriculture industry’s harmful effects on human health and the environment remain largely unregulated and the conditions on factory farms remain obscured due to lobbying.
      On top of that, it plays a key role in worldwide fresh water shortages. Just here in California, meat and dairy alone account for 47% of non-replaceable use of water. The household water use is only 4%, including over-watering traditional lawns.
4. Climate action failure - influence of dark money and international crime on governments and climate change disasters like fires in California:
   
   1. Coastal Fire, 15 x 11 inches, watercolor on cotton;
       Now, instead of a fire season, we have a “fire year,” where wildfires occur in any month.
      The current multi-year megadrought on the US West Coast is the most extreme in 1,200 years, and has been made 72% worse by human-caused climate change. Water reservoirs in California are draining rapidly after a dry winter.
5. Weaponization of technology: mass surveillance as global propaganda as a weapon to gain power, weapons of mass destruction that are armed at all times and can kill hundreds of millions of people directly, and billions due to the effects on the ecosystems, and the weapon trade to authoritarian regimes:
   1. Capital Concentration, 15 x 11 inches, watercolor on cotton;
      We live in time of unprecedented concentration of wealth. About 0.7% of the world’s adult population controls approximately 46% of the world’s wealth, valued at approximately $129 trillion. About 2,000 corporations have total assets equivalent to 55.90% of the global household wealth. More than 75% of US industries have experienced an increase in concentration levels over the last two decades, and this has decreased competition. Market share of four biggest firms in wireless communications carriers is over 89%. Money can be and are used to gain political power. It is even more concerning in age of interned ad paid propagation of information.
   2. Slavic Newspeak, 15 x 11 inches, pigment ink on paper;
      This is a black and white pigment ink drawing with technical pens. It is bases on symbols from three cultures and illustrates the Russian invasion into Ukraine, that broke all promises between folks and quickly turned into large scale massacre and terror. The first two symbols are Slavic cross-stitch embroidery patterns.  The central one is from Kyiv area, designed for needlework by future mothers for the children clothing. The second one on the top (corresponding to the North on the war maps) is from Moscow tradition of Russian Empire era, depicting a crowned bird with a cross, that turns into a weapon in the lower end. The encircling the composition dry-brushed enso symbolizes the state of mind that may allow one to stay sane in face of atrocities of occupation.
   3. Disinformation Defense, 24 x 18 inches, acrylic on paper;
      This is an fine art poster that represents a natural defense against misinformation and manipulation (presented in the artwork with words fake, lie, and con: ethical code, critical thinking, and self-knowledge.
6. Diseases  and malnutrition - pandemics of new and untreatable infectious illnesses, poor immune defense due to inadequate nutrition, intoxication, drug use, and failing mental health.