The SCAD Museum of Art presents "The Red Divers of the Everglades: The Battle Begins," an exhibition by SCAD alumna Enid Blechman (M.F.A., painting, 2013). Using scratched drawings, brilliant color, and humor as tools to intrigue viewers, the artist highlights environmental issues in, but not limited to, the state of Florida. Blending science and imagination, Blechman’s work constructs a world that lies between fact and fiction. She creates her work under the guise of a fictional CEO, artist and top scientist of Adipose Industries, an 'anti-corporation' that seeks to use repurposed materials and respond to ecological emergencies.
Included in the exhibition is a series of narrative paintings depicting the exploits of an imagined team of deep-sea divers, formed by Adipose Industries to explore the Florida Everglades. An urgent call detours the divers farther north to Stuart, Florida, where they discover a formidable opponent, toxic blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria. A battle with the algae ensues. Through this narrative, Blechman calls attention to the very real problem of toxic blue-green algae and its devastating effects on human health, the fragile ecosystem of Florida’s waterways and wildlife, as well as the state’s economy.
Upon graduation from SCAD, Enid Blechman presented a solo exhibition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has also completed residencies at The Studios at Key West, Florida, and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and was a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in drawing. Blechman has exhibited in Florida, Georgia, Alaska, Tennessee, Massachusetts and New York. In October, she will travel to China to study the effects of toxic algae on Lake Taihu and see efforts to solve the problem firsthand.