aposematic activism By Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco In Of ash and coal, Greg Lindquist depicts the largest carbon dioxide emitting coal electric plants in the United States. Focusing on the social spaces that constitute these sites of energy produc- tion, a tension emerges out of a confrontation of two distinctive discourses. On the one hand, these paintings subversively engage with the art historical genre of landscape painting to address the deterioration of the environment. On the other hand, they mobilize the sense of urgency and social responsibility of environmental activism, continuing concerns from the community-engaged Smoke and Water (2014–17) project—a few canvases from that series are included in this exhibition—that responded to a massive coal ash spill in North Carolina in 2014. Beyond generating “awareness” of the health emergencies in environ- mentally-sensitive enclaves, Lindquist revises—using this crisis as the pretext—the relations between artistic production and social practice.   Nineteenth-century American landscape painting, commonly known as the Hudson River School, relied upon the figure of the Romantic and Transcendentalist artist who, disinterested in any social or political commentary, depicted the virtues of the American pastoral landscape. But this societal- religious construction of nature as myth, now appears pierced by fluxes of electricity, covered in a dirty dust coating the inhabitants’ lungs, and shrouded by dense layers of smoke that have multiplied since the first era of industrialization. Lindquist instrumentalizes the aesthetic legacy of this movement Plant Bowen, Euharlee, Georgia, August 16, 2017