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Nina Elder

Nina Elder

Visiting Faculty and Mentor she, her, hers

Summary

Nina Elder is inspired by holes in the ground and piles of rocks. Her practice invigorates the mind and body towards the future, celebrates a planet that is dynamic and beyond human control, while fostering deeper connection and stewardship. As an artist and researcher, Nina engages deep time perspectives where planets, geology and ecosystems are in constellation with social issues and personal narratives. Guided by geologic disturbance and resilience, she interprets planetary dynamics as scores for human behavior and learning, becoming adept in the flux between life and death, creativity and mourning. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, Nina advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. Her work takes many forms, including drawings, sculpture, performance, essays, pedagogy and long-term community-based projects.

Recent solo exhibitions of Nina's art have been organized by the University of Colorado, SITE Santa Fe, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and museums across the US. Her work has been featured in Art in America, VICE Magazine, Hyperallergic and on PBS. Nina's writing has been published by Dark Mountain, Routledge Press and American Scientist, among others. Her research has been supported by the NEA, the Warhol Foundation, Rauschenberg Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation and Mellon Foundation.

Publications

  • Elder, Nina. “Fugitive Dark.” Dark Mountain Journal, 2025.
  • Elder, Nina. “Everything is a Cloud.” The Alma Journal, Daisy Dog Press, 2024.
  • Elder, Nina. “Piñon Passage.” Transpecies Design, ed. Adrienne Parr, Routledge Press, 2024.
  • Elder, Nina. “Insecurity.” Deep Horizons: A Multisensory Archive of Ecological Affects and Prospects, ed. Brianne Cohen, Erin Espelie, & Bonnie Etherington, Amherst College Press, 2023.
  • Elder, Nina and Nicholas B. Jacobsen. “Lithic Record: Speaking for Geologic Disruptions.” Ventriloquism and Contemporary Art. ed. Jennie Hirsch and Isabelle L. Wallace, Rutledge Press, 2023.
  • Elder, Nina. “We Are the Ancestors of the Future.” Essay for Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande exhibition catalog, 516 Arts, 2019.
  • Elder, Nina. “Paradox, Sunrise, and a Thirsty Place.” American Scientist, vol. 107, Number 5, September - October, 2019, p. 266 - 269.
  • Elder, Nina and Nicholas B. Jacobsen. “Lithic Record: Speaking for Geologic Disruptions.” Ventriloquism and Contemporary Art. ed. Jennie Hirsch and Isabelle L. Wallace, Rutledge Press, forthcoming.
  • Elder, Nina. “Erratic Monuments to a Melting World.” Edge Effects, Center for Culture, Humanities, and the Environment, University of Wisconsin, November 2017.

Education

  • MFA, Critical Economic Theory and Painting, San Francisco Art Institute, 2009
  • BFA, Painting, University of New Mexico, 2004