Solarpunk is a cultural movement that envisions a non-dystopian future and embraces profound change in our relationship with energy, community and technology.
Below is a sampling of the solarpunk art we curated for ecothèque.
We powered all installations and video screens with renewable energy from our creative community microgrid!
Major thanks to these artists for offering to display their creations pro bono in an effort to inspire collective regenerative action.
BRENNA QUINLEN
Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator who strives to make the world a better place through her art and her actions. She has ridden a bicycle across the Americas, and has taught permaculture in Brasil, Chile, Argentina and Australia. Brenna is currently building her own strawbale house out of reclaimed materials in Western Australia on Noongar boodja.
DUSTIN JACOBUS
Dustin Jacobus is a Belgian artist and industrial design engineer with special interests in biomimicry, sustainable design, nature and futurism. “How would a world where we try to take care for all lifeforms look like? In my art I try to explore the answer to this question.”
NICOLE KELNER
Nicole Kelner uses art to inspire climate action. She uses watercolors to communicate complex, systematic challenges in climate and present them in a beautiful and accessible way. She is the author of A Brighter Future: Illustrating Climate Change and Solutions, a book designed to show how art can help us visualize the future we want to thrive in. She is also an Artist-in-Resident at My Climate Journey.
ASTROTHEBAPTIST
astrothebaptist is a moniker for LJ Kim, a mixed media artist & filmmaker based in Los Angeles. astrothebaptist represents the part of him that explores, creates, and finds peace in the cosmos. As an artist, he delves into the world of light, sculpture, space, and architecture, seeking to capture the beauty and wonder of light and color.
MARC NGUI
M. Ngui is an artist designer, living and working in the Windsor/Detroit region. He specialises in drawing, visual storytelling, sequential art and philosophic visualisations. He is currently exploring radically optimistic speculative future scenarios. This panel is from Jewel of the Boreal, a graphic novel that describes a densely populated, self-regulating, ecologically integrated megacity on the north shore of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Canada. The Central Shield Special Administrative Biome will be the first of many Special Administrative Biomes established globally as part of humanity's transition to equitable cultures that respect planetary boundaries.
SEAN BODLEY
My inspiration is to make art from imagination at the intersection of human technology and climate change. There is no planet B, and these works explore different human responses to climate change. Human civilization could crack like an egg, continue to thrive, or start new adventures on a changed planet.
kasch is a South African Visual Development artist and Illustrator who is currently based in Berlin. In their free time they are working on a personal world building project called "Hong Congo", which is inspired by Afrofuturism, Fungi, Psychedelia and the Solarpunk movement.
“The Myconaut”: “She turned to look back one last time at the safety of her camp, before venturing further into the humid depths of the fungal grove. Delicate spores drifted lazily around her as she weighed the wavering odds in her mind. All the data that she had extracted from the surrounding node-stools pointed to this location, although she knew all too well that this place had a way of playing tricks on even the most seasoned of Myconauts. This was it, her big score. No turning back now.”
COMMANDO JUGENDSTIL
In The Floating Village we imagined the ecological conversion of an abandoned oil rig, where people re-uses its structures to build biomes and food forests, while also installing energy generation devices like floating wind turbines, thin film solar panels and tidal turbines. The village is accessible by boat, and various communities take care of it cyclically, with a scheme based on cooperation.
We are a solarpunk creative collective, creating projects which merge technology and art with the idea of transforming the city into a sustainable version of itself, while focusing on co-designing solutions with local communities, to stimulate a just transition that can spark from the ground up. We believe imagination is a transformative force, so we also write and illustrate stories and other works of fiction that can help people envision their sustainable future: if you can imagine it, then you can do it.
JOAN DE ART
Joan is a social worker by day, and artist, environmentalist and activist by night in Chicago IL. Joan uses her work to call attention to environmental racism and how it impacts communities of color in her segregated city. She has worked with grassroots organizations to plant guerilla gardens, paint murals, test community water pipes for lead, and plant trees in under-resourced neighborhoods. She is passionate about building a better world without waiting for permission.
Solarpunk Suburbs: the artist and her solarpunk-minded neighbors tore out their front fence posts and planted a joint communal garden together, with a small take-what-you-need garden for the neighborhood which inspired this post. The neighborhood is currently watching to see if this experiment will work, and are slowly warming to the idea of replacing their invasive lawns with native prairie grasses and drought-resistant trees to combat climate change on the front lines. Leading by example is the quickest way to get a community on board.
OLGA “ASUROCKS” ADRIYENKO
Freelance art witch working in comics, games and animation and fighting evil by moonlight. Loves doing art that empowers and connects.
It's sometimes hard to be optimistic about the future these days, so I made this artwork full of light, joy and optimism to remind myself that we can make it.
CHRISTIAN HOLLAND
Christian Holland is a Los Angeles based Visual Artist. Seen in both gallery & commercial settings, his works explore green innovations through the lens of Solarpunk aesthetics while utilizing dynamic, vibrant compositions in the hopes of capturing greater awareness for the planet, towards a more proactive future.
JOHN BONNER
Born in England, I received a BA at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London. I came to America to do my MFA, and fell in love with the country (though that love had been strained recently). Since becoming a citizen, I have made a living both as a designer, illustrator and artist. Deeply concerned about the existential threat of climate change, as we all are, whether we choose to know it or not.
Parts of an ongoing digital series called "Postcards from the Future" in which our projections and assumptions about what will happen are put to the test, in optimistic and pessimistic ways.
KRIS-JAN DELPORT
I'm a 23-year-old graphic designer and illustrator born and living in Pretoria East, Gauteng, South Africa. I'm a designer by day and an illustrator by night, and I love uniqueness, emotional depth, metaphors, and intriguing storytelling through visual communication.
GHETTO PLASTIC
Cg Ronin, toy maker, interested in mechanics, engineering & fabrication, mostly science fiction aesthetics. Daily Bots is a collection of mechs, exploring a future in which robots were designed to make your life easier. Pot (or just 'the rabbit') is a versatile urban growing pot, adding a small portion of nature to your urban patio.
ecothèque guests explored a solar-powered audio-visual installation filmed and crafted by The Öther specifically for the regenerative occasion. The Öther is a creative collective that explores humanity's ongoing dance with duality, bringing an intersectional perspective to our collective efforts to transition to new forms of energy.
The Öther created a scenic moment at ecothèque entitled "Portal,” which was inspired by the solarpunks-esque restoration of the L.A. river.
Cheryl Agustin is an LA based artist whose work is highly influenced by the juxtapositions of pastel dreamscapes and the inferno, the beautiful and the bizarre. She is driven by her relentless passions, staying true to her personal expression, and an endless curiosity for learning.
Raised by Boomers, nurtured by Millennials.
Shot on an unassuming street in the hills of East Los Angeles, Jay Martinovich’s “Succulent Boys” showcases modern notions of masculinity through the lens of nature, strength, and vulnerability. The supple, yet sinewy texture of man-skin is set against razor-sharp cacti and sensuously flowering bougainvilleas, creates a unique interplay of texture and emotion.
Jeremy Raskin is an art director & graphic designer based out of Los Angeles, California who has worked with clients in the music & entertainment industry including Jacob Collier, Anjunadeep, Ariana Grande & Sony Music
