CAROLINA CAYCEDO'S ECOLOGICAL VISION LANDS AT THE KEMPER ART MUSEUM

The Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis presents Growing Deep Roots, a solo exhibition of new and recent work by the Los Angeles–based Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo, now open until January 4, 2027.

The exhibition brings together sculpture, drawings, prints, and videos that address the interrelated issues of water and land stewardship and just energy transition. Drawing on environmental justice frameworks, traditional knowledge systems, and ecofeminism, the exhibition highlights Caycedo’s continued engagement with rivers and the socio-ecological impacts of extractive, profit-driven expansion alongside works that imagine more sustainable futures.

“Caycedo’s practice challenges dominant conceptions of nature as a resource to be exploited, instead positioning ecosystems as living networks to which we are deeply accountable,” said Meredith Malone, the Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg Curator and senior curator at the Kemper Art Museum. “This exhibition brings together works that are both visually compelling and urgently relevant, creating space for reflection on our connection to place, to what sustains us, and to what we can do to reciprocate.”

In her Plant Portraits series (2021–ongoing), Caycedo reconfigures scientific botanical illustrations, merging plant and human anatomy. In calling them “portraits,” Caycedo reorients the Western portraiture tradition, presenting plants as subjects with agency while underscoring interdependence across species. The artist expands this approach in her Root Portraits (2026–ongoing), which move below ground to emphasize the importance of root-to-soil interactions. Focusing on perennial prairie grasses and grains that improve soil health, mitigate climate change, and boost biodiversity, the series includes works such as Complex, Nutty, and Slightly Sweet: I Am Kernza. The drawing depicts the encircled roots of two Kernza plants, the first commercially available perennial grain currently being developed for long-term environmental sustainability by plant scientists.

Caycedo also created the large, three-part relief print Prairie Root Portrait at WashU’s Island Press, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, in March 2026, when she was the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist. This work, depicting the roots of six different native prairie grass species, is informed by her conversations with St. Louis–based and regional plant scientists and community members about the importance of perennial agricultural systems and the restoration of prairies in the Midwest region of the United States.

Concurrently, Caycedo presents a related work, Fiesta de las Raíces, a new commission for Counterpublic 2026: Coyote Time, a triennial exhibition featuring fifty new commissions throughout the St. Louis region.

The ideas of Growing Deep Roots further expand through a range of works that narrate the impact of resource extraction and industrial infrastructures on both bodies of water and human bodies. Caycedo’s Mineral Intensive drawings (2023–ongoing), rendered in vibrant colored pencil, collage together images of large-scale mining sites and extractive landscapes that include scenes of labor. The mural Elwha’s Healing (2022/2026) depicts the recovery of the Elwha River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States following the removal of two hydroelectric dams after decades of native activism, and the subsequent return of salmon populations.

With her long-running series of hanging sculptures, Cosmotarrayas, named as a portmanteau of “cosmo” and atarraya, the Spanish word for “cast-net,” Caycedo connects her studio practice with community involvement. To create Celestial Autonomy, the Dance of Big Dipper and North Star (2023), the artist sourced everyday fishing nets from fishermen, fishing supply stores, and beach clean-up nonprofits in Anchorage, Alaska. The title references the Alaskan flag, in which the Big Dipper and North Star represent the role of astronomical knowledge in Indigenous Alaskan navigation. The sculpture’s eight dipnets correspond to these stars and, according to the artist, represent a combination of “porousness and strength, reflecting the inherent connectivity among beings,” as opposed to damming systems which control and redirect the flow of water.

As part of Growing Deep Roots, Caycedo will curate a selection of portraits and landscapes by women and nonbinary artists from the Museum’s permanent collection, including works by Rebecca Belmore, Rivane Neuenschwander, and Rose B. Simpson. These will be presented in dialogue with her My Feminine Lineage of Environmental Struggle: Expansion I (2019), a printed canvas banner depicting more than 140 women environmentalists from around the world, many of whom have faced violence, incarceration, or persecution. In addition, two cases in the center of the gallery present specimens selected by Caycedo from the Herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden. One case features native prairie species, while the other highlights plants named for or identified by women scientists, recognizing their often-overlooked contributions to the study and classification of the natural world. The conversation Caycedo creates among these diverse artworks and botanical samples underscores the vital relationship between women’s labor, feminism, and environmentalism.