Ecohaven Project (Chicago, USA) promotes a collaborative, multi-disciplinary exploration of ideas and design solutions for temporary and permanent spaces, structures and beyond. Ecohaven Project’s intention is to generate environmentally and socially responsible ideas and solutions for various types of housing and educational platforms. The hope is that these collaborations will result in a diverse body of projects for each respective sector. By creating inspiring, innovative and mindful designs, Ecohaven Project supports the triple bottom line of people, planet and prosperity. The Ecohaven Project consists of Principal and Founder, Jennifer Hoffman, along with Chief Collaborator, Geoff Hoffman.
Exploring the boundaries between art, science and technology, Brandon Ballengée creates multi-disciplinary works out of information generated from ecological field trips and laboratory research. Since 1996, Ballengée has collaborated with numerous scientists, members of the public and students to conduct environmental research and create ecological artworks. A central focus of his primary scientific research has been the occurrence of developmental deformities and population declines among amphibians. In 2001, he was nominated for membership into Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society. In 2009, Ballengée, with collaborator Stanley K Sessions, published their research article, “Explanation for Missing Limbs in Deformed Amphibians” in Journal of Experimental Zoology, which received international media attention from the BBC and others. The results of his works with amphibians will be presented in a solo 2011 exhibition at EcoArtspace (NYC). Currently he is preparing a large-scale installation on the Atlantic Ocean bio-diversity decline for an upcoming exhibition at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts (NYC) with Helen and Newton Harrison. Over the past decade and a half, his artworks have been exhibited in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Recent solo exhibitions of his work were held at Royal Institution of Great Britain (London), Parco Arte Vivente, Centro d’Arte Contemporanea (Turin), Nowhere Gallery (Milan), The Arsenal Gallery in Central Park (NYC), Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University), Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College (USA) and the Shrewsbury Museum in Shropshire, England (the birth city of Charles Darwin). Ballengée participated in the 2004 Geumgang Nature Art Biennale in Kungju, South Korea, the Waterways Project installed at the 2005 Venice Biennale, Biennale for Electronic Arts Perth 07 in Australia, film screenings as part of the 3rd Moscow Biennale in Russia and the Biotechnique exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco 2007. His work has been included in several books including the new Art+Science Now published by Thames and Hudson in London. Ballengée has been awarded several artist grants including funding from the Puffin Foundation, Maxwell Landau Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, New York State Council on the Arts and others. He also has attended several artist/ researcher in residency programs. In 2003, he was an artist-in-residence at the Natural History Museum in London, Gunpowder Park in London in 2007, the Société des arts technologiques [SAT] in Montreal, Canada and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in Wakefield, England in 2008, Sculpture in the Parklands, County Offaly, Ireland in 2010.
In 2011 Ballengée will be an artist-in-residence at the KHOJ International Artists Association in New Delhi, India. He currently is co-founding an urban bio-art institute in his midtown Manhattan-based studio and is finalizing his PhD through a collaborative program between the University of Plymouth, England and Hochschule für Gestaltung in Zürich, Switzerland. The book, Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians debuted in March 2010 published by the Arts Catalyst, London and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, England. Another forthcoming book on Ballengée’s projects relating to Amphibian studies and ‘eco-system’ activism will debut in 2011 published by Parco Arte Vivente, Centro d’Arte Contemporanea and Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Italy.