A solo exhibition at the Holter Museum of Art by artist Danielle O’Malley. Open from October 10 – December 31.
Join opening night (10/10/25) for an evening of fun and festivities. Explore Danielle O’Malley’s immersive exhibition, listen to their artist talk and enjoy freshly made cotton candy from Holter’s After School Teen Arts Council.
For years, O’Malley’s art has shown her deep concern for the Earth’s declining health. By pairing earthen materials and up-cycled detritus into monumental sculptures, she creates tension that highlights the danger of our compounding climate catastrophe and underscores humanity’s complex bond with nature. Her forms, inspired by everyday objects, represent: warnings, ecosystem imbalance, widespread carbon footprint, and the importance of sustainable living.
Cross+Roads examines our ever-changing ecologies and humankind’s connection to Land. Human choices significantly impact both local and global ecosystems. We must consider how our actions, both positive and negative, impact finite natural resources and the quality of life on Earth. Canadian researcher Max Liboiron notes, “pollution is not a manifestation or side effect of colonialism but is rather an enactment of ongoing colonial relations to land.”
Human-made land impositions serve as metaphors for establishing healthier boundaries with nature, allowing the Earth to heal from misuse. Fences, property markers, and land scars-extraction sites, construction sites, Superfund sites-are as integrated into the Western landscape as flora and fauna. These features can protect, block, guide, or contain, but they also reflect the history of colonization and its damage: overconsumption, land division, Victorian lawn care practices, the forced removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands, and more.
This exhibition highlights the devastation caused by colonist values and advocates for anti-colonist approaches to contemporary ecological crises. Exploitative practices have complicated our relationship with the natural world. To prevent complete climate collapse, we need to reevaluate our interactions with the natural world and prioritize care and respect in environmental decision-making.
We are at a crossroads. Our collective choices will shape the planet’s future. Conscious action and advocacy for ethical stewardship are essential to protecting and nurturing Mother Earth.
The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.
-Greta Thunberg
