Retooling: Art, Ecology, and Climate Adaptation

‍Retooling: Art, Ecology, and Climate Adaptation

What happens when artwork shifts from representing ecological problems to functioning as an ecological tool?

September 22 - October 11 2026

Featured artists and speakers: Laura Splan, Mary Mattingly, Edward Morris, Joaquin Fargas, Morakana, Alex Nathanson, Mari Nagem, Gesche Würfel, Katie Fisher and others

Curated by: Elena Soterakis (BioBAT Art Space), Isabella Indolfi & Paige King (MESH_ARTS)

‍Retooling: Art, Ecology, and Climate Adaptation is a three-week exhibition and public program featuring talks and community workshops. During Climate Week NYC, and for the following two weeks, MESH_ARTS, in collaboration with BioBAT Art Space, presents an exhibition highlighting innovative practices that have generated tools around shade equity, atmospheric adaptation (transforming sunlight into water), making imperceptible systems tangible, and other creative conversions that help aid. The exhibition considers artistic practice as a way for building ecological infrastructure and public pedagogy, where interdisciplinary collaboration gives rise to new forms of environmental literacy and civic imagination. This program demonstrates how creative collaboration can cultivate environmental literacy, build shared infrastructure, and connect artistic practice with climate action.

Artists and creative researchers are working across disciplines to engage with ecological challenges, creating tools that expand how we understand and respond to climate change. They’re repositioning the focus from artist as producer to artist as facilitator, educator, and infrastructure builder. Increasingly, these interdisciplinary practices have generated new forms of collective knowledge, action, and tool-making.

Through collaborations across art, science, engineering, and technology, they transform empirical research into new ways of operating. Esteban Agosin, Joaquin Fargas, Laura Splan, Mari Nagem, Morakana, Peter Yeadon & SPARK IP, work with natural forces rather than simply represent them. Embedded in their practice is a bridge to speculative propositions, learning, and possible futures. Their creative outcomes are ecological, accessible, and pedagogical, generating tangible tools that foster connective participation and action.