Coliseum Of Chaos: Olive Ayhens

Olive Ayhens http://www.oliveayhens.com/
suggests the chaos of our planet better than any other artist I know of at the moment. She is not specifically addressing our current moment of crisis but rather the ongoing multiple catastrophes we are triggering on our precious planet, of habitat, of extinction, of the collision of nature and humans,  Here is one example that especially seemed to speak to this moment.

Olive Ayhens "Coliseum Of Chaos", oil on canvas, 48"x57", 2007

Here is another that addresses our overwhelming arrogance over centuries, bringing together the buffalo, which white people slaughtered with the explicit purpose of obliterating Native peoples who relied on it. with skyscrapers in Yellowstone, underlying our oblivion to nature and our wanton and wasteful development.

 "Skyscrapers in Yellowstone", oil on canvas, 52"x48", 1998 (Harper's Magazine, January 2016)


And these two works speaking to the reassertion of nature over our oblivion
The first one is "Oceans Rising", oil on canvas, 60"x46", 2016 (Harper's Magazine, February 2017

The second one is "The Streams Return", oil on canvas, 48"x60", 1997

Here are two more that speak of the clash of nature and humans in other ways, the multilevel development in the wilderness 

"Parallel Strata", oil on canvas, 45"x57", 2009

and the commute in the center of a flooded city. 

"Rapid Commute", oil on canvas, 62"x51", 1996-97 (Art in America, May 2002)