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“It’s impossible to photograph clouds for their beauty anymore. We know too much about what is going on,” said photographer Richard Misrach wistfully on a recent weekday evening. He should know. The Berkeley-based photographer has made a name for himself capturing striking images of man’s impact on the planet — which includes the creation of…

Merging art and activism can be a tricky thing. Many artists waver in their negotiation of aesthetics and argument, and end up falling on one side or the other. In the exhibit Petrochemical America: Project Room, internationally acclaimed photographer Richard Misrach manages to walk that tightrope with expert equilibrium. In 1998, Misrach took his camera…

The combined works of photographer Richard Misrach and landscape architect Kate Orff in The David Brower Center’s exhibition of “Petrochemical America” portray a haunting reflection on the destruction caused by industrial growth in America. Focusing on the polluted stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the two highlight the harmful potential…

In a world where people like to speak of “connecting,” many artists — or, in the present case, curators — have taken on the mantle of reminding us how digitally mediated relationships fail to substitute for the old-fashioned kind. Almost Together, a juried group show now on display at the David Brower Center, sets out…

Internationally acclaimed painter Jeff Long, known primarily for his abstract works, has lately taken up his brush in defense of Western birds and other wildlife. Referencing the classic bird illustrations of John James Audubon, Long’s monumental and highly detailed paintings depart from the master by including elements of the ecological challenges each species faces. His…

When she was a child growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Laura Cunningham always wondered what her house and her neighborhood looked like before the creation of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. For the next 30 years she went about acquiring the artistic skills and scientific knowledge that would enable her to give…

Artist-naturalist Laura Cunningham works primarily as a scientific illustrator, rendering fossils for paleontology publications by the likes of UC Berkeley and the Smithsonian Institution. Her background comes through loud and clear in her first ever solo exhibition, Before California, which reads like aterrifically illustrated textbook about the effect of human activity on local wildlife. Cunningham captions paintings…

When environmental activists protest in front of the White House to stop the Keystone oil pipeline, or demonstrate at the Southern California Edison headquarters to demand that the company close its San Onofre nuclear plant, they are carrying out the legacy of David Brower, who helped transform environmentalism from a polite cause dominated by don’t-rock-the-boat…

Berkeley, CA – June 18, 2012 – The David Brower Center’s Executive Director Amy Tobin was chosen as one of five individuals who received the 2012 Gerbode Professional Development Fellowship. The $10,000 fellowship is meant to recognize Tobin’s dedication to the nonprofit field, including building the Brower Center into the thriving community it is today.…

When Kenneth Brower was finishing up his freshman year at UC Berkeley, his father – the famed environmentalist David Brower – recruited him to work on a project: a book featuring stunning photos of the Big Sur coast entwined with the poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Never mind that Kenneth Brower, born and raised in the…