Soledad Salamé: Camouflage

Exhibition Viewing and Curator’s Tour with Amy Raehse

Goya Contemporary Gallery, Baltimore, MD

Thursday, June 12, 12pm

Mill Centre Studio 214
3000 Chestnut Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21211

As environmental degradation becomes an increasingly pervasive and subtle part of our daily lives, its impact continues to be overshadowed by the promises of “green” consumerism. While major corporations tout their eco-friendly initiatives, the exploitation of natural resources persists unchecked. Global summits and regulations continue to struggle for meaningful change, and the spectacle of eco-activists disrupting art institutions seems more like a symbolic gesture than an effective solution. It is within this complex and urgent context that Chilean American artist Soledad Salamé positions her latest work—a profound, poetic intervention at the intersection of art, research, and environmental activism.

Salamé’s work highlights the quiet but powerful resilience of nature in the face of human influence. She collaborates with scientists, ecologists, and environmentalists to create works that are not only visual reflections, but also repositories of labor, resistance, and hope. Through this collaboration, she captures the often invisible or overlooked effects of environmental violence, while also exploring moments of healing and repair.

A core focus of Salamé’s practice has been her repeated engagement with the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a region severely impacted by pollution and the mass disposal of textile waste—particularly fast fashion. Millions of pounds of discarded clothing are buried in the desert’s arid landscape, where they have become an unnerving, permanent feature of the terrain. This ecological wound, a direct result of unsustainable consumerism, serves as the backdrop for Salamé’s latest work.

About the artist:
Soledad Salamé (b. 1954, Santiago, Chile) is an award-winning, critically acclaimed interdisciplinary artist based in Baltimore, MD. Her work, grounded in extensive field research across the Americas and Antarctica, addresses themes of migration, climate change, and the socio-political impacts of environmental shifts.