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Biography

 

 

 

OLIVER KELLHAMMER Curriculum Vitae D.O.B. 9/13/1959 citizenship: (Canada, USA)

e-mail: okellhammer@gmail.com | kellhamo@newschool.edu | web:www.oliverk.org
mobile: 917-743-0126

Oliver Kellhammer is an artist, writer, researcher, and educator whose botanical interventions and socially engaged art practice explore nature's remarkable capacity to recover from ecological disturbance. His recent work has focused on the psychosocial impacts of climate change, the remediation of contaminated soils, the reintroduction of prehistoric tree species to landscapes altered by industrial logging, and the biodiversity of post-industrial brownfields.

Since 2015, Kellhammer has served as a part-time Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design / The New School in New York City, where he teaches in Sustainable Systems, Biomaterials Studio, and Product Design Studio. His current research explores protocols for 3D printing biomaterials and the emergent cognition of slime molds. Alongside his teaching and research, he has developed biomaterials fabrication curricula that have been widely adopted across both undergraduate and graduate programs.

Kellhammer also serves as a union steward for UAW ACT Local 7902 and has participated on the union's organizing and bargaining committees. His forthcoming book, Ruderal Witchcraft, co- authored with Margaretha Haughwout (Colgate University), examines the ecological and cultural magic of post-industrial landscapes and is scheduled for publication by Goldsmiths Press (London) in 2027.

Practicing since the mid-1980s, Kellhammer has lectured extensively on bio-art, ecological design, urban ecology, permaculture, and regenerative design at universities and cultural institutions throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. Invited venues include New York

University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, OTIS College of Art and Design, the University of Oregon, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Smith College, the University of British Columbia, Bainbridge Graduate Institute, the University of Windsor, Aalto University (Finland), Tohoku University (Japan), the University of Texas at Austin, Parsons School of Design / The New School, and many others.

artist's statement: research interests and modalities:

I am interested in exploring the processes of ecological regeneration in the wake of human disturbance, either through

passive field observation (what can I not do?), watching how organisms establish themselves in industrial wasteland, or by

actively engaging in the biological and socio-political relationships that inform these landscapes and trying to improve them.

The latter approach often takes the form of what I call 'botanical interventions', wherein I employ horticultural techniques to

mitigate ruptures between people and the landscape, enhancing both a sense of the place and the place’s biological

diversity, as well as mitigating such problems as erosion, access to affordable and nutritious food, and the lack of agency that

low-income communities are traditionally afforded in the design of urban space. My past projects have included a

neighborhood stewarded bio-materials plantation, the reforestation of an eroded railway ravine in which the vegetation is

protected under intellectual property rights and collaborating with squatters in Canada’s poorest neighborhood to establish

the nation’s first public permaculture food forest and Asian ethnobotanical arboretum. More recent investigations have

focused on the speculative botany of climate change, and the role of brownfields as refuges for biodiversity. My interventions,

when I make them, are deliberately anti-monumental. As they integrate into the ecological and cultural communities that

aggregate around them, my role as the artist becomes increasingly obscured.

exhibitions / interventions (select):

2022: 'Plastivore' at 'Meta.Morf' exhibition, Trondheim International Bienalle for Art and

Technology, Trondheim Science Museum, Trondheim, Norway

2019: 'Plastivore' at 'Disposable' exhibition, Science Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2018: 'Plastivore' at 'Life at the Edges' exhibition, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

2018: 'Dear Climate' at 'Indicators' exhibition, Storm King, NY 2017: Neo-Eocene: Gingko spiral at Agrikultura, Malmo? Sweden

2016: Dear Climate, collaborative installation with Una Chauduri, Marina Zurkow, Fritz Ertl at NYPL, mid-Manhattan branch, NY, NY
2015: 'Seeing the Forest Through the Trees' group show @ Abandon Normal Devices, Grizedale Forest Visitors Centre, Hawkshead, Cumbria, UK

2014: Dear Climate, collaborative installation with Una Chauduri, Marina Zurkow, Fritz Ertl at 'Strange Weather' exhibition, Dublin Science Gallery, Dublin Ireland, also at 41 Main Street Windows, Brooklyn, NY | 'Ecological Interventions,' Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy, New York

2010: 'other gardens' @ Mobile Media Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
2009: Neo-Eocene, collaboration with scientist Rupert Sheldrake, Cortes Island, BC (ongoing) 2007: Video Screening: „OOH, YAH, YAH, YAH, YAH“as part of 3by3 event, EFA Gallery, EFA Studio Center, New York, Nov 15th.
2006: Concrete Island, World Urban Forum, Vancouver, Canada
2003: Means of Production, Art and Environment Initiative, Vancouver Parks Board, Vancouver, Canada. (ongoing)
1997: Healing the Cut-Bridging the Gap, Grandview Cut Bridges Public Art Project, Vancouver, Canada. (plantings completed)
1994: End of the Nation State, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff | Seeds of Resistance, Cheap Art Collective, Hamburg | Healing the Cut-Bridging the Gap, Grandview Cut Bridges Public Art Project, Vancouver (initial work)
1993: Artropolis 93, Vancouver | Roadside Attractions, Or Gallery, Vancouver | Baader-Meinhof- Information-Plant, Gallery Sansair, Vancouver
1992: The State of Things, Garnet Press Gallery, Toronto | (founded) Cottonwood Community Gardens, Vancouver
1990: Artropolis 90, Vancouver | Breaking Boundaries, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC | The Shaping of Nature, Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON
1989: Specific Pacific, YYZ Artists Outlet, Toronto | Niagara-Model of the Universe, Niagara Artists’ Centre, St. Catherines, ON

1988: Forest-Model of the Universe, Mercer Union,Toronto | Lead Down the Garden Path, Garnet Press Gallery, Toronto
1987: Ear to the World, A Space, Toronto
1986: Park, Garnet Press Gallery, Toronto | The New Mechanics, Saw Gallery, Ottawa

1985: Films by Men, A-SPACE, Toronto | The Theory of Evolution, Eye Revue, Toronto | Swamp- Model of the Universe, Orbit Art Room, Toronto | Eyedentities, Orbit Art Room, Toronto
1984: Erect Systems, Frontier Video, (PBS), Buffalo | Swamp Life, Orbit Art Room, Toronto
| Works with Paper, Gallery 620, Toronto

1983: Photo/Electric Art Show, La Chartreuse, Villeneuve-les-Avignon, France. | Dataviews, ArtCulture Resource Centre, Toronto | Posthuman Culture, Eye Revue, Toronto

residencies:

  • Renga for the Fifth Season, residency with Liz Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse, Phats Valley, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Sept 2014

  • Floating Studios for Dark Ecologies, field investigations with Marina Zurkow and Carol Stakenas, Portland Oregon, August 2014

  • Brownfieldlandia, residency with Kathy High, Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy NY, July 21-27, 2014 (ongoing project)

  • Field_Notes – Deep Time, residency organized by the Finnish Society of Bioart at the Kilpisja?rvi Biological Station in Lapland/Finland, Sept 15–25, 2013

  • Living at the End of Nation States, (Residency Leader), Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Canada. 1994

recent publications:

  • Upcoming: Ruderal Witchcraft (with Margaretha Haughwout), Goldsmiths Press, 2027

  • Upcoming: El diseño en una época de crisis: sistemas y enfoques multiespecies en la pedagogía de primer año/Design in a Time of Crisis: Systems and Multispecies Approaches in First-Year Pedagogy, in LEARNING, (UN)LEARNING AND (RE)LEARNING, Pavilion, Bogata, 2026

  • ‘A Ruderal Witchcraft Manifesto’ contributor with Margaretha Haughwout in WITCH STUDIES

    READER, Duke University Press, Durham, 2025

  • ‘Urban Autonomous Zones and the Mitigation of Climate Disasters, CITY PREPAREDNESS

    FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, Edward Elgar Publishing,

    Cheltenham, 2021

  • The New American Citizen’, NATIONAL OBSERVER, JULY 22ND, 2020

  • ‘Ruderal Systems’, THE DISTANCE PLAN # 5, 2019

  • ’The Subjective Lives of Others', contributor, INTERALIA Magazine, September 2017

  • ‘Dictionary of the Possible’ contributor SHIFTER MAGAZINE (22nd Issue) NYC, August 2016

  • ‘Nodes and Networks’ contributor SCIART MAGAZINE, UK, August 2016

  • ’Violent Reactions’, in PETROLEUM MANGA (edited and illustrated by Marina Zurkow),

    Punctum Publications, NYC, May 2014

  • ’Neo-Eocene’, in MAKING THE GEOLOGIC NOW (edited by Elizabeth Ellsworth + Jamie

    Kruse), Punctum Publications, NYC, Dec. 2012

  • ’Cottonwood Gardens-Oasis in Peril’, in VANCOUVER OBSERVER, Vancouver, Sept 20th,

    2012

  • ’Discovering Portland’s Organic Architecture’, in VANCOUVER OBSERVER, Vancouver, Dec

    1st, 2011 ’Grand Theft Auto: Vancouver Riots and the Deficit of the Real’, in VANCOUVER

    OBSERVER, Vancouver, July 11th, 2011.

  • ’The Future of Vancouver’s Urban Landscape: Open-Source City’, in VANCOUVER

    OBSERVER, Vancouver, May 31st, 2011

  • ’Crush’, in DARWIN’S BASTARDS: ASTOUNDING TALES FROM TOMORROW, (edited by

    Zsuszi Gartner), Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, 2010 (short story previously nominated

    for the Canadian National Magazine Award in VANCOUVER REVIEW, Winter 2009)

  • ’Concrete Island’, in PUBLIC 41, (edited by Erin Despard and Monika Kin Gagnon), York

    University, Toronto, June 2010.

  • ’Botanical Interventions–Open Source Landscapes and Community Repair’, in ACCESS ALL

    AREAS: CONVERSATIONS ON ENGAGED ARTS, (edited by Tania Willard), GRUNT,

    Vancouver, October 2008

  • ’Hybrids’, in KNOCK MAGAZINE ISSUE #12, Seattle, 2009

  • ‘I Love Turtles’, in KNOCK MAGAZINE ISSUE #8, Seattle, 2008

  • 'State of the Forest- The Canadian Landscape as Propaganda’ FUSE MAGAZINE, Toronto,

    March 1992

  • 'Strategic Maneuvers- Corporate Money Laundering Through the Arts' FUSE MAGAZINE,

    Toronto, August 1989

recent talks/lectures (selected):

  • Multispecies Lab: ‘Slime Mold Subjectivity’, The New School, NYC, Oct, 21, 2025

  • ‘Material Strategies in Sustainability’ panel, The New School, NYC, Mar, 20, 2025

  • ‘Art and Climate Change’ panel, The New School, NYC, Oct 17, 2024

  • ‘Plant Potential’ panel, University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, November 5,

    2021

  • Regeneration and Reclamation in Environmental Justice–Projects by Contemporary Artists

    and Educators’, AASHE Conference panel, October 12, 2021

  • ‘Living in our Filth? A conversation about design in a world of novel ecosystems’, panel,

    Digital Futures Conference, June 28, 2021

  • ‘In the Present Moment–Buddhism, Contemporary Art and Social Practice’, panel, Art Gallery

    of Victoria, Oct 27, 2019

  • ‘Heather Davis and Oliver Kellhammer talk about Plastic’, Union Studio, Brooklyn NY, April

    26, 2019

  • ‘Grafters’ X-Change’, Colgate University, Hamilton NY, March 29-31, 2019

  • ‘Ruderal Ecology -Grounds for Change', Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy NY, April 13,

    2018

  • 'In Human Time- A Conversation on Climate and Art’, The New School, NYC, January 26,

    2018

  • ‘Postindustrial Ecologies of the Hudson River Estuary’ Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy NY, May 14, 2017.

  • Gaia Summit panel at Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn NY, April 30th, 2017

  • ‘Weedy Resistance’ panel on ‘Borders’, The New School, Transdisciplinary Design Studios,

    NY, April 9th 2017.

  • ‘Terrain Vague: The Wonderful World of Disturbance Ecologies’, Free Association Design

    Studio, Brooklyn NY, Nov 15th, 2016

  • ‘Not Dead Yet- The Surprising Diversity of Post-Industrial Biotopes’, Verge Transdisciplinary

    Design Conference, The New School, NY, February 25, 2016

  • ‘Dictionary of the Possible-Animal’, hosted by Shifter Magazine, The New School, NY, Nov

    21st, 2015

  • Dear Climate’ Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy NY, Nov 11th 2014

  • ‘Ruderal Ecologies' Planet Repair Institute, Portland, Oregon, July 31st 2014

  • ‘Botanical Interventions’ Rensselaer Polytechnic, Troy NY, March 6th 2014

  • 'Botanical Disturbance' Otis College, Los Angeles, February 25th, 2014

  • 'Culture + Community: Social Practice and the City', Vancouver, October 26, 2013

  • 'Violent Reactions' a reading of my essay in Marina’s Zurkow’s 'Rogue Frequency/Petroleum

    Manga,' The New School, NYC, September 28th 2013

  • 'Botanical Interventions: Rebuilding Landscapes, Reshaping Communities' University of

    Oregon, Eugene Oregon, May 2013

  • 'The Future is Shrubby!' Planet Repair Institute, Portland, Oregon, September 30th 2012

  • Village Building Convergence, Portland, Oregon, June 1st 2012

  • 'Nature 2.0’ ITP New York, NY, February 17th, 2012

  • SFU City Studio, Vancouver, BC, January 26th, 2012

  • Planet Repair Institute, Portland, Oregon, November 18th, 2011

  • 2nd Nature Institute - Hothouse series, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, September 17,

    2011

  • Ten for Ten series, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, June 23 2011

  • 'Botanical Interventions' Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC, May 5th, 2011

  • ‘Crush’ reading at Darwin's Bastards Book Launch, WISE Club, Vancouver, BC, April 16th,

    2010

  • Campbell River Art Gallery, Campbell River, BC, March 31st, 2010

  • Sierra Club - 'Botanical Interventions: A Permaculture Approach to Fixing the Planet,' Quadra

    Island BC, Oct 3rd, 2009

  • Interdisciplinary Forums – ‘DING’ Emily Carr University, Vancouver BC, February 12th, 2009

  • Making Art Public- Artists, the Law and the making of Public Art in Public Spaces, Coal

    Harbour Community Centre, Vancouver BC, Nov 20th, 2008

  • 'Literary Machines,' Green College, UBC, Vancouver BC, July 7th 2008

  • „OOH, YAH, YAH, YAH, YAH “ as part of 3by3 screening series,

  • EFA Gallery | EFA Studio Center, New York, Nov 15th, 2007

  • Emily Carr University, Vancouver BC, June 19th, 2007

  • Artists’ Urban Plans Symposium, University of Windsor, Windsor Ontario, March 13-15, 2007

  • New York University, New York, Tisch/ITP, April 16, 2007

  • Smith College, Northampton Massachusetts, Landscape Studies Program, April 23, 2007

education:

University of British Columbia, (MFA Creative Writing) 2009

Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute, (Certificate in Sustainable Business) 2003

Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Canada 1994-1995

Ontario College of Art, (A.O.C.A. Photo/Electric) 1985

University of Guelph (Engineering and Video Art) 1977 - 1980

awards:

Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Vancouver Parks Board Art and the Environment
Initiative, Vancouver Foundation, Vancouver Public Art Program, New School Faculty Development Grant.

other: 

Permaculture Design instructor (Permaculture Institute of North America) since 1990, ACT- UAW local 7902 PTF bargaining committee member, ACT-UAW union steward, New School Language Support trained, Tishman Environment and Design Center Affiliate.