Oceanic issues, like coral bleaching or plastic pollution, are often out sight, out of mind. These artists are changing the equation, crafting eye-popping pieces that demand attention and push for change in a style all their own.

Courtney Mattison

Instagram: Courtneycoral

The spiral starts with a burst of color, reflecting a healthy reef in all its Technicolor glory. But as the arm unwinds, delicate forms bleach to white, a sight all too familiar to divers in places where coral is dying.

It’s a stark reminder for some, and an eye-opener for nondivers, for whom this disaster is just unfolding.

Mattison’s enormous stoneware and porcelain installations are composed of many individual pieces, much like a coral reef. A diver trained in marine biology, she spent part of her undergraduate career in Australia, studying coral reef ecology—and the Great Barrier Reef itself.

“I felt heartbroken,” she told the Brown Alumni Magazine (Mattison holds a master’s in environmental sciences from Brown), realizing “how quickly we could lose it if we don’t act urgently to change our life- styles and policies.”

On Display Mattison’s 60-foot-long, 8-foot-tall Semesta Terumbu Karang— Coral Universe, composed of 2,000 individual pieces, can be seen at the Center for Marine Conservation in Bali, Indonesia.

Mulyana

Instagram: Mangmoel

“We are losing the corals, and it’s our only ocean,” says Mulyana, an Indonesian artist spotlighting ocean health through community art.

His oceanscapes, made in collaboration with students he teaches to crochet, transform galleries into purpose-sunk artificial reefs. Vibrant corals, mystic cephalopods and chipper fish twisted from colorful yarn dangle from the ceiling, sprout from the floor and crest the walls. But the playful scene carries a serious message—bursting through the knit reef are pure white corals, a chilling signal of oceanic decay. In bringing coral bleaching topside, Mulyana allows anybody to viscerally experience the benthic evolutions the way divers do daily.

“I hope that we will appreciate the abundance that the ocean gives us, learn to protect [it], and only take what we need” as a result of this work, he says.

On Display Pending COVID-19 restrictions, Mulyana plans exhibits in August at Dia.Lo.Gue, Jakarta, Indonesia; in October at Art Porters Gallery, Singapore; and in November at Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore.

Stéphanie Kilgast

Instagram: Petitplat

Ocean themes rise and fall like the tides in Kilgast's work, a sprawling collection of upcycled containers and flamboyant murals.

“I create a world that has a cheerful post-apocalyptic vibe to it, the humans are absent, leaving their objects behind that are taken over by a colorful nature,” says the French artist. “I added a simple message to my work: consume less… Once we start changing and reflecting, it is often a snowball effect of change.”

Most recently, Kilgast helped Mother Earth colonize the single-use water bottles that litter shores and choke reefs. Amid the collection of five vivid sculptures, two feature coral and an octopus reclaiming the territory plastic tried to steal. The other three focus on terrestrial reclamation, emphasizing the interrelated fate of land and sea.

“I find coral reefs and the world of fungi and moss to be very similar in shapes and patterns, so I tend to mix them freely… At the core, what is important to me is nature and its conservation," she says.

On Display Kilgast plans to display at the Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, Australia in July and as a part of a group exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco in October. A rainbow, undersea mural she painted across an entire room is on continual display at Dédale in Vannes, France.

Related:

• 14 Customized Scuba Fins to Inspire Your Next At-Home Art Project
• Four Ways to Be an Ocean Advocate
• 20 Ways to Make Your Dive Travel More Environmentally Friendly