Brandon Ballengée
Arnaudville, LA
Brandon Ballengée is a visual artist, biologist, and environmental activist based in Arnaudville, Louisiana, who creates artwork inspired from his ecological field and laboratory research. Through research, he focuses on the impact of the Anthropocene on human and non-human communities, and his artistic practice combines participatory science programs with poetic interpretations of extinct or deformed animals due to human impact.
Ballengée received his Ph.D. in Transdisciplinary Art and Biology from Plymouth University with the Hochschule für Gestaltung Zürich. Since 2016, he has been a Postdoctoral Researcher at Louisiana State University’s Museum of Natural Science, studying impacts from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In 2017, Ballengée was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History, examining species “missing” from the Gulf since the 2010 oil spill. Ballengée’s work has been exhibited in over 20 countries and, in 2013, the first survey of his work debuted at the Château de Chamarande in France, and traveled to the Museum Het Domein in the Netherlands. In 2016, a 20-year retrospective of his work was held at University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie, Wyoming.
From the Journal
Searching for the Ghosts of the Gulf (African Pompano) by Brandon Ballengée, 2014.
Searching for the Ghosts of the Gulf (Tears of Ochun) by Brandon Ballengée, 2012
Wanted Fish Species Missing Since the 2010 Oil Spill by Brandon Ballengée, 2016-ongoing
Pointe-aux-Chenes Eco-Action, May 2017
Indian Bayou Eco-Action
Participatory educational and research field trip with the Acadiana Master Naturalist Class at Indian Bayou, Butte La Rose
RIP Spreadfin Skate by Brandon Ballengée, 2018
Searching for the Ghosts of the Gulf
Brandon Ballengée is a visual artist, biologist, and environmental activist who creates work examining the impact of the Anthropocene inspired by meticulous field and laboratory research.
Artist BioThis interdisciplinary art and environmental project seeks to activate and empower Gulf of Mexico residents through eco-actions and pop-up exhibitions in coastal Louisiana. A project focus is to collectively search for and poetically portray “missing” Gulf species that have not been reported since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Searching for the Ghosts of the Gulf premiered as part of FishSTOCK, a community celebration of art, adaptation, and fishes, in Plaquemines Parish, LA on March 25, 2023.
From the Journal
Brandon Ballengée’s Searching for the Ghosts of the Gulf will premiere at FishSTOCK in Plaquemines Parish, LA on March 25, 2023. Learn more about the project in his Artist Diary!