Art Now! presents Atmospheric Shifts and Turbulent Times

Wally Dion, Lisa Hirmer, Andrew Maize, and David Spriggs
Panel Discussion, Moderated by Helen Gregory
Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 7PM
Presented in partnership with McIntosh Gallery

Philosopher Timothy Morton describes climate change as a hyperobject – an entity that is so massively dispersed across time and space that we are incapable of truly comprehending it. We can imagine ourselves in relation to the recent past, the here and now, and the near future. However, it is more challenging to understand how we play a part in a trajectory that spans from the ancient past to thousands of years in the future. While our individual actions may not have any statistical impact on the environment, over time, the collective actions of the seven billion humans who inhabit the Earth have added up and brought us to the present moment.

Our complicity in a planetary change – an atmospheric shift – that unfolds over millennia is seemingly ungraspable. The effects of human activity are not only apparent on the surface of the Earth but also in the boundary layer that surrounds it. The artists in this exhibition have been invited to consider the current environmental moment – an era marked by the impact of global warming and the corresponding increase in severe weather events – and to imagine our human position within it. Join us for a thought-provoking panel discussion with exhibition artists Wally Dion, Lisa Hirmer, Andrew Maize, and David Spriggs, moderated by Curator Helen Gregory. Hosted live on Zoom, this event is presented in partnership with the Department of Visual Art’s Art Now! Speakers’ Series with support from the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at Western University.

Find biographies for the artists on the Art Now! Series page.

Find more information about the exhibition at McIntosh Gallery.

The Art Now Speakers’ Series is a component of ongoing academic offerings in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University. All lectures are free and open to the public. This series is generously supported by The Faculty of Arts and Humanities. 

Image: David Spriggs, Aeturnum, 2025, acrylic, acrylic paint on layered acrylic sheets, LED light box.