Solo Exhibition
Marcie Begleiter
Chimera: The Future of Nature
July 3 - October 17, 2026
Please join me for the opening reception on Friday, July 3 from 5–8 PM. The public is invited to join an artist-led walkthrough of the exhibition at 5:30 PM. Both events are free and open to the public. The evening will be taking place during SLOMA’s First Fridays program and the summer nights will be in full swing.
Emma Saperstein, Chief Curator at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, says: “The Central Coast is such fertile ground for artists like Marcie whose practice is research-based and rooted in nature. I am thrilled to finally have the opportunity to celebrate this dynamic and forward thinking voice in contemporary art.”
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art
1010 Broad Street
(on the west end of Mission Plaza)
San Luis Obispo, California 93401
In Art Writer Shana Nys-Dambrot’s essay abut the show, she discusses the range of material inspirations of the work in this show:
In the kinetic evolution of her studio practice she leverages her background in cinematic set-building to construct meticulously layered dioramas that recall and embody the earnestly surrealist natural world outside her door. She photographs and animates these foraged artifacts; the charred bark, salt-etched debris and volcanic rocks serve as the material DNA of the project, highlighting a psychic gap between the silent, brittle material and the lush animations vibrating on the surrounding walls.
About the exhibition:
Chimera: The Future of Nature is a series of films, photographs, and sculptures by Central Coast artist Marcie Begleiter. The work explores the ways that climate change is reshaping the natural world.
Begleiter collects objects from the environment, such as bones, seed pods, and dried plants, which she then uses to build her own detailed and modified landscapes. These hand-built worlds, along with her field photographs, become the raw material for five short films that use digital animation to add wind, water, and movement to the still images. The result feels like something between a documentary and a dream.
The work is grounded in climate science research, particularly understanding how living systems evolve in response to rapid environmental change. A chimera (in mythology, a creature of mixed parts from different species) becomes the artist’s metaphor for ecosystems that are finding unexpected ways to survive. In this exhibition, Begleiter utilizes the same material and re engages it in multiple ways: in film, sculpture, photography, installation, and sound, to welcome close looking and reflection on environmental catastrophe and hope. These are not images of loss alone, but are portraits of stubborn and surprising resilience.
