If you thought Venus Williams had only seven Grand Slam titles, five Wimbledon championships, and four Olympic gold medals to her name, well, you’re a little behind, because besides also being an entrepreneur, she has art world cred. She collaborated with artist Robert Pruitt on a portrait of her for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery on the occasion of winning the Portrait of a Nation Award in 2022, and the following year, along with Pace Gallery and artist Adam Pendleton, she curated a fundraising sale to help Pendleton, along with artists Julie Mehretu, Ellen Gallagher, and Rashid Johnson, purchase the home of the legendary singer Nina Simone.
Now, she adds arts podcaster to her list of credentials as part of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh’s exhibition, “Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape,” in which environmental history and change are explored as they are presented through the camera lens. The show includes nearly a hundred works by 19 artists, including three new commissions, ranging from black-and-white photos to immersive installations.
Justine Kurland, Forest (1998). Courtesy of the Artist and Higher Pictures, New York.
But for sure the flashiest part is the podcast, which drops on June 26, in which the tennis great interviews artists, writers, poets, philosophers, environmentalists, and other experts, including historian Tyler Green, archaeologist Rachael Z. DeLue, geologist Marcia Bjornerud, science writer William L. Fox, and an array of artists included in the exhibition, such as David O. Alekhuogie, A.K. Burns, Mark Armijo McKnight, and Victoria Sambunaris.
“I’m honored to partner with Carnegie Museum of Art on ‘Widening the Lens,’ a deeply meaningful project that integrates art, environment, and intentional storytelling,” said Williams. “The participating artists and thinkers you’ll hear on the Widening the Lens podcast reflect diverse, global perspectives and a vast range of backgrounds and experiences; I am proud to help amplify their voices as they prompt us to consider new and alternative ways of relating to our landscapes through photography.”
The wide-ranging show explores the land and our relationship through it via four themes. Artists including Raven Chacon and Xaviera Simmons feature in a section exploring colonial legacies of classification and representation. Sky Hopinka and others figure in a section looking at nature as a memorial landscape. Justine Kurland appears in a passage on the human experience of the environment. Cyprien Gaillard, Lucy Raven, and Tomás Saraceno populate a section of the show exploring environmental anxiety and possibility.
“Carnegie Museum of Art is committed to creating space for expansive inquiry into the art and ideas that shape our time, and ‘Widening the Lens’ addresses one of the most critical issues facing the world today: our relationship to our environment,” said Eric Crosby, director, Carnegie Museum of Art, and vice president, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
“The project explicitly looks at how the camera can act as a tool to question inherited narratives about people and ecology, and foreground stories that are often overlooked or excluded,” said Dan Leers, the museum’s curator of photography. “We are thrilled to bring together many artists and thinkers who have catalyzed their creative agency to ask challenging questions and envision possible futures.”
