Join the UC San Diego Library for the opening of the newest exhibition in Geisel Library, Ebb and Flow: Giant Kelp Forests through Art, Science and the Archives. You’ll have the opportunity to browse the exhibition, meet and hear from the artists, and enjoy seaweed-inspired appetizers and mocktails.

Registration for this event has closed. We will not be able to accommodate walk-ins. We welcome you to visit the exhibition another day during Geisel Library’s regular open hours through April 21, 2024.

Curated in partnership with Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps) alumna and artist Oriana Poindexter ’15, the exhibition showcases works created as a result of continued observation of the local giant kelp forest environment by artists, scientists and community members over the past 134 years.

The artwork on display is the interpretation of the giant kelp forest by four contemporary artists in their distinct styles using ceramic, sculpture, oil painting, gyotaku and alternative photographic processes.

The exhibit also includes seaweed pressings collected in La Jolla from 1890 through 2023, including seaweed pressings from the Library's Special Collections & Archives that were created by Virginia Scripps and her sister Ellen Browning Scripps. Additional pressings from the Scripps Herbarium Collection, now housed at the San Diego Natural History Museum, are on loan from the museum and on display. Current Scripps professor Jennifer E. Smith's more recent pressings are shown alongside these archival pieces. 

PROGRAM

6 p.m.: Reception starts

6:30 p.m.: Lightning talks with artists and scientists featured in the exhibition:

• Oriana Poindexter
• Dwight Hwang
• Julia C R Gray
• Marie McKenzie
• Jennifer Smith, PhD

7:15 p.m.: Artist lightning talks conclude

7:30 p.m.: Opening reception concludes

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

San Diego’s coast is home to iconic underwater forests of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera). Towering 100 feet tall from the ocean’s rocky floor to the surface, they create homes for hundreds of animals to live in and can regulate the impacts of climate change. These forests provide many benefits to the ocean, animals and humans.

Ebb and Flow illuminates the evolution and the persistence of giant kelp forests, ebbing and flowing through time but continuing to hold fast to the rocky shorelines. The works in this exhibition document the giant kelp forests and associated species from 1890 to the present day by uniting archival material with contemporary art, bridging art and science to inspire awe, ignite curiosity and catalyze dialogue.