Luke Agada, Jackie Amézquita, Miguel Arzabe, Saif Azzuz, Jackie Castillo, Lenz Geerk, Aaron Glasson, Koyoltzintli, Dionne Lee, Suchitra Mattai, Evan Nesbit, Wendy Red Star and Noah Schneiderman.

Roberts Projects is pleased to present Back To the Earth, a group exhibition of artists whose work emerges from a symbiotic relationship with their environment. Featuring painting, drawing, sculpture and installation alongside a rotating selection of video works, this exhibition considers how artists use organic materials, found objects and elemental forces to engage in an ongoing dialogue with the natural world.

For centuries, human civilization has harnessed the Earth’s natural resources to develop tools, architecture and technology; over time, the environment reclaims and alters these man-made creations through erosion, weathering and other natural phenomena. This cycle of degradation and regeneration transforms the landscape into a new entity, allowing artists to re-envision corroded forms by imbuing them with aesthetic value and philosophical meaning.

Each work in the exhibition offers a unique perspective on this dynamic exchange. Artists that model sustainable methods of production glean their surroundings for materials to create assemblage works with profound epistemic resonance. Paintings and sculptures incorporating handmade dyes, found objects and raw pigments evoke lines, shapes and textures that are found in nature while transcending boundaries between abstraction and surrealism. Other works reflect on how these environmental forces are not merely observed, but internalized—how the land becomes an extension of the self, even as we continue to shape and inhabit it. Environmental phenomena such as sedimentation and seed dispersal parallel Indigenous histories of migration, displacement and assimilation, which are echoed in works made from soil and other organic matter.

Presented in collaboration with the Holt/Smithson Foundation and Electronic Arts Intermix, the first video work will be Robert Smithson’s film Spiral Jetty (1970). This film documents the intense building process of the monumental earthwork, which used over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and soil collected from the site in Utah. The screening will begin at 11AM on Saturday, June 7th and conclude at 7PM on the same day.

As explained by critic and novelist John Berger in his book Ways of Seeing (1972),"Art does not exist in isolation; it grows, transforms and decays alongside the landscapes that nurture it." Back To the Earth fosters a deeper understanding around these ineffable forces of nature, and the multitude of ways that artists merge with and draw inspiration from the land.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Luke Agada (b. 1992 Lagos, Nigeria; based in Chicago, IL) received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2023. He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including The James Nelson Raymond Fellowship, The Helen Frankenthaler Award, The Janet and Russell Doubleday Award, The George and Ann Siegel Award, The Global Warming International Art Prize and a Teaching Fellowship in Painting and Drawing at SAIC. Agada was a 2023 Artist in Residence at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

Jackie Amézquita (b. 1985 Quetzaltengo, Guatemala; based in Los Angeles, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist whose research examines biomaterials and forms associated with pre-Columbian cultural traditions. Amézquita received an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 2022. Her work has been exhibited at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Los Angeles, CA; 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA; The Armory Center of the Arts, Pasadena, CA; Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles CA; The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA; Human Resources, Los Angeles CA and the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY.

Miguel Arzabe (b. 1975 St. Louis, MO; based in Oakland, CA) received an MFA in Art Practice from University of California, Berkeley in 2010. His work has been in recent exhibitions at the deYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA; Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco; Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Tucson Art Museum, Tucson, AZ; Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco and Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. Arzabe’s work is included in the collections of the deYoung Museum, the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, the Oakland Museum of California and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, among others.

Saif Azzuz (b. 1987 Eureka, CA; based in Pacifica, CA) is a Libyan-Yurok artist whose paintings, sculptures and installations reflect the resilience of Indigenous cultures and reimagine our relationships with nature, privatization and commodification. Select public collections include the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; Facebook, Menlo Park, CA; Gochman Family Collection, NY; KADIST, San Francisco; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada; Stanford Health Care Art Collection, Menlo Park, CA; UBS Art Collection, New York, NY and University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN. His forthcoming solo exhibition, titled Keet Hegehlpa’ (the water is rising), will be on view from June to December 2025 at the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, TX.

Jackie Castillo (b. 1990 Orange, CA; based in Los Angeles, CA) received a BA in Art from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2018, and an MFA in Art from the University of Southern California in 2025. Her research addresses the history of land development in Southern California since the late 19th century and includes documenting the ever-changing urban and suburban landscape on all film formats. Current exhibitions include Through the Descent, Like the Return, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA. In 2023, Castillo’s work was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Lenz Geerk (b. 1988 Basel, Switzerland; based in Dusseldorf, Germany) is a painter whose portraits, landscapes and still lifes are rendered with exceptional intensity and luminosity. Geerk formally studied painting at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 2008-2013. Solo exhibitions include Schwarzweiß, Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Moonpaintings, MASSIMODECARLO, Milan, Italy; Arrival, Roberts Projects, Los Angeles; Sleepless, MAMOTH, London and Pearls & Pearls, Galeria Acappella, Naples, Italy. Group exhibitions include TICK TACK, Kunsthalle Recklinhausen, Germany; SLEEP, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands and Intimacy Rarely Makes Sense of Things, Pond Society, Shanghai, China, among others.

Aaron Glasson (b. 1983 Auckland, New Zealand; based in Mexico City, Mexico and Landers, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist whose paintings and sculptures explore the interplay between ecology, sustainability and fine art. He has had solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Maia Contemporary, Mexico City, Mexico; Louis Buhl Gallery, Detroit, MI and Curator’s Cube, Tokyo, Japan. Glasson is co-founder of Jana Koya, an artist residency based in the Mojave Desert.

Koyoltzintli (b. 1983 New York, NY; based in Kingston, NY) is an interdisciplinary artist, healer and educator whose practice is informed by sonic research, ancestral technologies, rituals and storytelling. Her work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the United Nations; Aperture Foundation, New York, NY and Parrish Art Museum at Princeton University, Princeton, NY. Koyoltzintli has performed at the Whitney Museum, New York, NY; Wave Hill, New York, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY; the Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Queens Museum, New York, NY; Performance Space, New York, NY; Dia Chelsea, New York, NY and Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY.

Dionne Lee (b. 1988 New York, NY; based in Columbus, OH) works in photography, collage, and video to explore power, survival and personal history in relation to the American landscape. In 2017 she received her MFA from California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; Storm King, New Windsor, NY; Swiss Institute, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY and The Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA, among others.

Suchitra Mattai (b. 1973 Georgetown, Guyana; based in Los Angeles, CA) received an MA in South Asian Art and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Recent solo exhibitions include Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet,  Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN;  Suchitra Mattai: Bodies and Souls, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL; Suchitra Mattai: We Are Nomads, We Are Dreamers, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY and a forthcoming exhibition at the Josyln Museum, Omaha NE. Her works are represented in the permanent collections of Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Tampa Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, National Museum of Women in the Arts, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum and the Tia Collection.

Evan Nesbit Nesbit (b. 1985; based in Nevada City, CA) received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Yale University in New Haven, CT. His undergoes a process of manipulating acrylic paint through burlap textiles to capture a kind of performative gesture in the making of each piece. Select recent exhibitions include Latest and Greatest: New Work at Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA; Color Fields, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA and Marbled and Bewildered, Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Long Beach Museum of Art; The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA and The Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, among others.

Wendy Red Star (b.1981 Billings, MT; based in Portland, OR) has exhibited in the United States and internationally at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan, France; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Hood Art Museum, Hanover, NH; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN and Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, among others. Fellowships and awards include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, the Bonnie Bronson Fellowship and the Infinity Award in Contemporary Photography and New Media, among others. In 2024, Red Star was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. 

Noah Schneiderman (b. 1996 Stewardson, IL; based in Los Angeles, CA) is a self-taught artist whose paintings emerge from an accumulation of intuitive gestures that reflect his interest in Mysticism, Philosophy and Human Consciousness. His work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at James Cohan, New York, NY; EUROPA, New York, NY; The Valley, Taos, NM; Solito Gallery, Naples, Italy and Gene Gallery, Shanghai, China. Upcoming projects include an artist residency in Mallorca, Spain. 

For additional information, please contact Clare Joelson, Associate Director at clare@robertsprojectsla.com.

For press inquiries, please contact the team at ALMA.

Image: Aaron Glasson, Ancient Good, 2025, sand, oil, oil stick, natural pigment, beeswax, pumice, earth, pit-fired clay, brass, copper, string, oak gall on canvas 68 x 48 in (172.7 x 121.9 cm); courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Photo: Paul Salveson.