At the end of 2020, during the second California lockdown of the pandemic, I embarked on a road trip through Arizona and Utah to find solace and respite in the natural world. I needed some fresh air and a fresh perspective. The landscapes I encountered were magical and transformative. This inspired me to create new bodies of work that would push my art practice to unimaginable places.
During my trip, I took thousands of photographs, and the process made me feel like a child. I was imagining narratives—supernatural stories similar to the ones I created in my mind when I was growing up. When I returned home, I began working with this material right away. I knew I wanted to show fantasy stories so that my work could offer the public a space where they could escape the harsh realities of life through their imaginations. This is how my Road Trip series was born.
This new work presented me with opportunities, and I was invited to create a solo exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum in 2023, which I titled Escape-Route.
Installation view, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA (2023-2024).
Escape-Route takes the spectator on a road trip. This journey begins with “The Maps that Failed Us,” a monumental paper installation. This work is an assemblage of maps of all the countries of the world jumbled together in random order. It shows how all humanity is interconnected, but one quickly realizes that navigation is complicated.
Digital collage, paper, cardboard, 10’h x 15’w x 6’d (2018-2024).
The installation highlights arbitrary borders that impact our sense of belonging. Immigration is a concern in many of my works, and I think about the decisions that affect families and individuals who are trying to connect and to find a home. This piece underscores the chaos and confusion many feel about borders, ownership of place, and the laws that govern one place next to another.
As viewers move into the museum’s main gallery, they see my work titled “Windshield.” It sets the tone for the whole show: the viewer is looking through a blurred and splattered windshield. Elements related to the passing of time, memories, and moving through space are evoked in this piece.
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 38” x 57” (2023).
As spectators continue navigating the exhibition, images take the audience through new terrains. Snow-covered mountain tops and snowfields show the various topographies we find across the West. Road and traffic signs remind us about the presence of people, even in the most remote areas of the landscape. It’s hard to decide if this is devastating or reassuring.
Archival pigment print, 8” x 12” (2023).
Archival pigment print, 8” x 12” (2023).
The small, sculptural object “Convenience Store” presents a playful element and takes spectators to a nostalgic past where these stores would be found along roads to give drivers on long journeys a break.
Found object, 4”h x 6.5”w x 5”d (2021).
Installation view.
Viewers then encounter another photograph of a windshield as they get close to the end in this journey. This time it is the blurred windshield of a boat through which we see mountains and water.
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas (2023).
Throughout the exhibition, artworks look like simple landscapes when seen from a distance, but as we get close, we find surprising elements. In “Windshield II,” most of the water drops present an optical effect of a landscape turned upside down. This play between clear and blurry sight suggests that what we are looking at is not always straightforward.
The viewer arrives at the final destination. “Black Water (The Exquisite Side of the Precipice)” is at the end of this escape route, where a captivating landscape towers above an abyss of dark water. This work, based on a photograph taken on Lake Powell, is very ambiguous. It’s a striking piece, but I’m also interested in the fact that Lake Powell is an artificial lake that was created by flooding a valley that had its own ecosystem, thereby disrupting it. All species there perished or had to relocate. This lake is also currently 75 percent empty due to climate change. The superficial beauty we see is in deep contrast to past destructive actions and their consequences. This piece reflects on the precarity of our relationship to water while also acknowledging water as a symbol of life and renewal.
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on canvas, 56” diameter (2022).
The road trip through the exhibition and the search for water is not only a physical but also an internal journey of discovery and reflection. One of the primary themes that I address in my work is environmental change. The landscapes in Escape-Route show the beauty and majestic qualities of nature and how they’ve been changed by civilization. This is shown metaphorically in a video projection, “Road Trip,” which takes viewers on a surreal journey where landscapes have gone through a deep color alteration, symbolizing the changes that our environment has gone through. The altered landscapes eerily portray distortions that begin to feel like a trippy science fiction film and take viewers on an out-of-this-world, supernatural voyage that enables them to get lost and find a sense of possibility and of freedom.
Video: 5 min. 18 sec. loop (2022), installation view.
Video: 5 min. 18 sec. loop (2022), installation view.
Video: 5 min. 18 sec. loop (2022), installation view.
At the core of my work is a deep search to find a new place in the world to call home and to regain a sense of belonging in the midst of global catastrophes and environmental disasters.
Video: 5 min. 18 sec. loop (2022), installation view.
As I was developing the concept for Escape-Route, I encountered Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, a classic of American nature writing. It was incredible to see the connection of my works to his book. It is a powerful and moving testament to the beauty of the desert and the importance of preserving wild places. There are almost a hundred passages from the book that directly relate to my work, from the description of deserts to the mountains covered by snow.
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 16” x 16” (2023).
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 16” x 24” (2023).
I included two quotes in the exhibition as a homage to his work and nature, including this one:
We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope…. Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
– Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
With all my work I want to nurture hope despite the great challenges of our time. I wish to create a moment for contemplating beauty, for experiencing joy, and for finding refuge.
Video: 5 min. 18 sec. loop (2022), installation view.
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 70” x 48” (2023).
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 16” x 24” (2023).
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 16” x 24” (2023).
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 8″ x 8” (2023).
Archival pigment inks and acrylic paint on raw canvas, 16” x 16” (2023).
Escape-Route is on view at Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California, until March 8, 2024.
About the Artist
Luciana Abait was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is currently based in Los Angeles. Her multimedia works deal with climate change and environmental fragility, and their impacts on immigrants.
Abait’s artworks have been shown widely in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia in solo shows in galleries, museums, and international art fairs. Selected solo exhibitions include Escape-Route at Laguna Art Museum, On the Verge at Hilliard Art Museum in Louisiana and Laband Art Gallery in Los Angeles, A Letter to The Future at Los Angeles International Airport in California, Flow, Blue at Rockford College Art Museum in Illinois, and ARCO in Spain. She has completed numerous corporate and public art commissions, among them “Vistas,” a 24-foot mural commissioned by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, and “Hong Kong Windows,” commissioned by Swire Properties in Hong Kong.
Abait’s works and her focus on environmental activism have been featured in The Art Newspaper, Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, Aesthetica, and STIRworld, among others. This work led to her invitation as guest speaker at the Culture Summit 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Abait’s works are held in private, public, and corporate collections from the United States, Europe, Latin America and East Asia.
Find more of Luciana Abait’s work at www.lucianaabait.com.
All images by Luciana Abait.
