EXPO: Considering plants and the question of extinction

Janise Yntema is a contemporary artist specializing in the ancient hot wax technique of beeswax encaustic painting. Working with beeswax brought an environmental awareness to the forefront of Yntema’s practice, leading to a concern for the loss of pollinators and plant biodiversity. 

Inspired by botanical classification systems of the 17th and 18th century, as well as 19th century daguerreotypes, Yntema creates portraits of red listed species to bring awareness to the beauty and sentience of the variety of critically endangered or extinct plants on the red list index. 

This series of beeswax and pigment drawings is an ongoing project on plant diversity, both from past geological eras as well as the present, with the intent to amass a selection of species from different geographic locations, creating an assemblage of global plant loss at this point. 

Follow Janise Yntema on Instagram @janiseyntema or visit janiseyntema.com