The Blue Forest
An Immersive Installation by Marine Scientist and Artist Oriana Poindexter
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 8, 2025 from 3 to 6pm
On View November 8, 2025 - October 11, 2026
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AVALON, Calif. (October 15, 2025) – Catalina Museum for Art & History announces The Blue Forest, an immersive installation by marine scientist and artist Oriana Poindexter, on view November 8, 2025 through October 11, 2026. The exhibition transports visitors into the underwater world of Catalina Island’s iconic kelp forests without ever getting wet.
“Oriana’s work embodies our mission to celebrate the unique art, history and environment of Catalina,” said Sheila Bergman, Executive Director of Catalina Museum for Art & History. “The Blue Forest allows visitors to connect with the island’s natural world in a way that is as visually stunning as it is deeply meaningful.”
Created by hand using historic photographic processes, The Blue Forest features life-size cyanotype images of native marine flora, collected by Poindexter while freediving just off Catalina’s shoreline and contact printed onto flowing silk panels. Visitors are invited to wander through a labyrinth of luminous, ocean-blue silk that depicts giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), elk kelp (Pelagophycus porra) and other local species.
Both meditative and educational, the exhibition bridges art, science and sensory experience. As light filters through the translucent panels, visitors are immersed in an environment that evokes the beauty and biodiversity of the island’s underwater ecosystems. For the first time in her work, Poindexter incorporates an underwater soundscape built from her own ocean recordings, deepening the sense of being submerged. “I hope visitors will feel the sense of calm, curiosity and connection that I experience underwater,” said Oriana Poindexter. “Entering the forest of cyanotype silks is an invitation to slow down, breathe, and recognize yourself as a small part of something much larger. The exhibit is designed to act as a portal into Catalina’s underwater world, offering an encounter that is at once intimate, meditative, and educational.”
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 8, 3-6 p.m.
About the Artist
Oriana Poindexter is an artist and marine scientist with a background spanning photography, fisheries and marine conservation. Based in Southern California, she free dives, photographs and collects marine specimens to create photo-based works that document the ocean’s shifting ecosystems. Her process, rooted in both traditional and alternative photographic techniques, results in life-sized, light-formed records from which she creates art-science exhibits that engage viewers in contemplating the relationship between humans and the sea.
Her work has been published by Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and exhibited nationally at institutions including the Oceanside Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum and the Aquarium of the Pacific, among others. Poindexter holds a M.A.S. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a B.A. from Princeton University. Her works are held in private collections across the United States and Europe. Learn more at orianapoindexter.com or follow her on Instagram @opoindex. She can be reached directly at studio@orianapoindexter.com.
About Catalina Museum for Art & History
Catalina Museum for Art & History offers the best in art and history exhibitions, music and dance performances, lectures by guest speakers from all over the world and the finest in silent, documentary and international film. The museum is located in the heart of Avalon at 217 Metropole Avenue. For more information, the museum may be reached by phone at 310-510-2414 or at its website: CatalinaMuseum.org.