National Museum of Wildlife Art Presents Impact and Entanglement: Three Video Works by Christina Seely

The National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) is pleased to announce the opening of Impact and Entanglement: Three Video Works by Christina Seely, a thought-provoking new exhibition inviting visitors to step into an immersive world and consider the question at its heart: what does it mean to witness a planet in flux, and what role does the witness play? On view from October 10, 2026 through January 3, 2027 in the Museum’s Wapiti Gallery, this exhibition brings together three of Seely’s major video and sound installations drawn from firsthand expeditions to the Arctic and the tropics, alongside a selection of daguerreotype wildlife portraits from Seely’s Species Impact series.

For more than fifteen years, Seely has traveled with scientists to some of the planet’s most climate-vulnerable regions, turning those encounters into immersive works that probe our shifting relationship to the nonhuman world. She works across photography, sound, and video. Seely holds a BA from Carleton College, an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a self-designed Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School (2023), where she explored the role of contemporary art as a site of existential and spiritual inquiry in the context of climate crisis communication. She currently lives and works between Edinburgh, Scotland, and Northern California.

“Visitors are invited into a sensory journey through the Arctic and the tropics,” said Kelly Skeen Fried, the Museum’s Sugden Chief Curator of Education. “Through immersive video and sound installations, Christina Seely brings together images of wildlife, landscapes, and human impact, creating an experience that is at once beautiful, immersive, and thought-provoking. The exhibition invites us to slow down, look closely, and consider the complex relationships between people, animals, and the environments we share.”

The exhibition brings together three video works that offer visitors different ways to consider humanity’s entanglement with a changing planet. De Tempore (“out of time”) layers footage gathered in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and the tropical islands of the Galápagos. Snow falling in darkness and the sun setting at hyper-speed represent the instability of seemingly fixed indicators of time and the implied impacts of climate change on the environments and species depicted. In Deflou Animales, Seely turns to the walrus, a species newly vulnerable to a warming world, in a dual-screen installation filmed on Moffen Island, 80 degrees north in Svalbard, where a herd of walrus moves through a snowstorm alongside human figures who eventually vanish into the terrain. Finally, Disturbance explores the unseen toll of global shipping by pairing field recordings made with sound engineer Christopher Hedge: an Alaskan winterscape near Anchorage Bay, split by the roar of cargo jets, and the rainforest of the Panama Canal, where container ships rumble through the trees.

“There is something powerful about encountering a landscape through time rather than simply seeing an image of it,” said Skeen Fried. “Seely’s video and sound works allow us to linger in these places, encouraging us to think differently about what it means to observe a changing world. Christina Seely reminds us that landscapes are never static. They hold histories, relationships, and evidence of change. Her work gives us an opportunity to spend time with those complexities rather than simply passing them by.”

Accompanying the video works is a selection from Species Impact, a set of ten daguerreotype portraits of animals photographed in the wild in Greenland, the Alaskan Arctic, Svalbard, and the Galápagos between 2012 and 2016. The chosen species cover a range of key climate change impacts noticeable in these regions such as ocean acidification, sea level rise, food supply depletion, and migratory pattern shifts. The mirrored surface of a daguerreotype shifts between ghostly negative, faint positive, and the viewer’s own reflection, so it is impossible to look at the animal without also seeing oneself.

The presentation of video art reflects NMWA’s broader approach to exhibitions. “Museums are places for encountering many different ways of seeing the world,” said Skeen Fried. “Exhibiting video alongside more traditional media like painting and sculpture gives our visitors an opportunity to experience how artists are using contemporary media to explore questions that have always been central to wildlife art—place, beauty, and our relationship to the world around us.”

Sneak Peek — October 9, 2026

A Sneak Peek program will be held on Friday, October 9, 2026, at 11:30 a.m., offering Museum members and guests a first look at Impact and Entanglement before it opens to the public. Sugden Chief Curator of Education Kelly Skeen Fried will lead the program, providing insights into the exhibition’s themes. The event is free for Museum members and included with general admission, and attendees will also receive 10% off lunch at Palate restaurant following the program.

Artist Talk with Christina Seely — October 10, 2026

Visitors are invited to the Members’ Lounge on October 10, 2026 at 2 p.m. for a conversation with visual artist Christina Seely, who will share stories of the remarkable wildlife and landscapes that have shaped her artistic practice. Seely will discuss the three video works and the daguerreotype series featured in Impact and Entanglement. Following her remarks, attendees can enjoy a Q&A and a special opportunity to view the exhibit alongside the artist. This event is free and open to the public. Food and nonalcoholic beverages will be provided.

Impact and Entanglement: Three Video Works by Christina Seely is generously sponsored by the Lea Charitable Trust.