Greta Pratt: Jamestown is Sinking

Greta Pratt’s photographic series Jamestown is Sinking explores the disparities and connections between climate change and colonialism in Virginia’s coastal region, where sea level threatens both land and history. In 1607, British colonists entered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, sailed up the James River, and established the colony of Jamestown on Indigenous land. Today, that history is kept alive through immersive period installations and reenactments, while throughout the region, inequities persist with stately beachfront homes and former plantations that dwell in proximity to worn-out apartment buildings.

A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in photography, Pratt is an acclaimed local artist whose work explores American myth, place, and identity. Her work has been exhibited at major institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, MASS MoCA, and Beirut Art Center, among others. Her photographs have been featured in Art in America, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harpers, and numerous books and catalogues.

This exhibition is curated by Chelsea Pierce, PhD, McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art.