This painting asks us to consider our environmental impact from a nonhuman perspective.

- Clinton Work

Environmental stewardship and territorial rights are addressed in this unique and unusual painting. Shaped like a section of a large oil pipe, Mixed Drink speaks to the relationships between environmentalists, indigenous nations, corporations and governments. 2020 saw major uprisings around North America in protest of forceful moves to lay pipelines across un-ceded territories and fragile ecosystems like the lands of the Wet’suwet’en and Standing Rock Sioux. The anger was a response to more than 1650 pipeline leaks recorded since 2010 in the US alone, over 11 million gallons of oil spilled. Much of the spills contaminated valuable water supplies for both people and animals. Here, the relationships are demonstrated as oil and water, two things that cannot mix. The painting shows the two liquids comingling, the black and the blue. Rich red evokes both rust and the flesh of fresh fish, shown in jarring and unhealthy Salmon designs across the canvas. Is it a pipe, or is it a river?

- Nathan Germain, Curatorial