Art of Warning

Mary Ciani

Mary Ciani paints destruction caused by the burning of oil.

Her art changed radically more than a decade ago when the world changed around her, as nearby Bastrop burned and Harvey swirled over a hot Gulf and slammed into Houston. She turned her subject from lives lived in time in Vines and Map Mountain Moon, to a deeper view: our ruthless destruction of our one home.

Ciani was called to an Art of Warning, creating Flood Drawings, Deluge Paintings, and Postcards from the Future. She drew Flood as glaciers melted; painted Deluge of black oil and lipstick-red blood – cause and effect – in a blue world under attack; and 200 small, black and red drawings, one a day, mailed back to us from the future as warnings. Recently she began an Art of Witness, creating Too Hot!, a new series in a new palette, cerise and yellow, responding to the miserable heat of the manmade “summer” of 2024, and the Los Angeles fires. What we once feared is now upon us.

Ciani enters an arena of artists making urgent images that cut through the noise of pop culture and lies. From her studio she looks out to a view of doves and cardinals, a pond and bamboo forest – but sees only deluge and fire.

Deluge, Black Oil, Snowmelt, Shattering Rock, 4’ x 12’ Polyptych of four 4’ x 3’ canvases, Golden paints, 2020-2024