Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on, and interruption of, the natural world. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, Nina advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. Because Nina is devoted to rural communities and often overlooked places, she regularly works outside of urban cultural centers and the commercial art world. Nina lectures as a visiting artist/scholar at universities, develops publicly engaged programs, and consults with organizations that seek to grow through interdisciplinary programming.
Nina’s artwork is widely exhibited and has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, and on PBS. Her research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation award for Arts & Activism, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. She has recently held positions as an Art + Environment Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art, a Polar Lab Research Fellow at the Anchorage Museum, a and a Researcher in Residence in the Art and Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico. She migrates between rural New Mexico and site-specific projects.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Uplift, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL
Solastalgic Archive, Evergreen College, WA
2023 Hold The Void, and The Solastalgic Archive, PNCA, Portland OR
Time Pieces, Albion College, Albion, MI
Nina Elder: HOLD, University of Maine, Orono, ME
Passage, Turchin Center for the Arts, Boone, NC
What Sustains, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT
It Will Not Be The Same, But It Might Be Beautiful, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO
2022 Solastalgic Archive, University of New Hampshire Art Museum, Durham, NH
Tongue Stones, Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City, UT
Uplift, Waterfall Center for the Arts, Belfast, ME
It Will Not Be The Same, But It Might Be Beautiful, Anchorage Museum, AK
2021 It Will Not Be The Same, But It Might Be Beautiful, Bunnell Arts Center, Homer, AK
2020 Transience/Permanence, NEST Studio for the Arts, Boulder CO
2019 What Endures, SITE Santa Fe, NM
Nina Elder : Accumulations, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Deep Time Lab with Nina Elder, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
THE SCORE | Indianapolis, Indianapolis Contemporary, IN
2017 Nina Elder, Central Features, Albuquerque, NM
2015 Lode, Central Features, Albuquerque, NM
2014 Overlook, Rule Gallery/Carmen Wiedenhoeft Gallery, Denver, CO
2013 Power Line, InPost Art Space, Albuquerque, NM
Marred Landscapes: Recent Paintings and Drawings, Oats Park Arts Center, Fallon, NV
Selected Publications & Press
"Nina Elder: 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now," Southwest Contemporary, June 2022
"Climate Exhibitions Look Beyond Declarations of Calamity," The New York Times, October 19, 2021
"Inspiration and Adaptation: Art in the Anthropocene," National Performance Network, 2020
Commencement Address, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2020
"Paradox, Sunrise, and a Thirsty Place.” American Scientist, vol. 107, Number 5, September - October 2019
NINA ELDER, ¡COLORES! New Mexico PBS, 2016
Selected Awards and Honors
2022 12 Artists To Know Now, Southwest Contemporary
2021 South Dakota Arts Council Commission Award
2021 National Performance Network, Creation Grant
2020-2021 Lincoln City Fellowship, Speranza Foundation
2019 National Performance Network Artist Award
2018-2019 Mellon Foundation Artist in Residence, Art and Ecology, University of New Mexico
2019 John Gaw Meem Scholar Award, University of New Mexico
2018-2020 Center for Art + Environment Research Fellow, Nevada Museum of Art
2018 Researcher in Residence, Anchorage Museum
2017 Pollock-Krasner Award
2016 Polar Lab Fellowship, Anchorage Museum
2016 Vermont Studio Center Residency Fellowship
2014 Polar Lab Fellowship, Anchorage Museum
2013 Creative Capital, Finalist
2012 Graham Foundation, Grant Recipient
2010 Andy Warhol Foundation: Idea Fund, Grant Recipient