SOF/Heyman Faculty Director and Governing Board Chair Jennifer Wenzel is co-organizing an international series of conferences on “Petroleum in (and out of) the Visual Arts," the first of which took place in Paris.

“Petroleum in (and out of) the Visual Arts” is an innovative international collaboration among SOF/Heyman, Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, Tecnológico de Monterrey (Guadalajara), and Centre Contemporary Art Lagos.

With generous support from a Columbia Alliance grant for Joint Projects on Climate, scholars and curators from these institutions have organized a series of events that will consider, both from a global perspective and in relation to local contexts, the evolving relationship between petroleum and the visual arts.

Oil has been long been entangled with the visual arts, whether in the petroleum derivatives found in materials for creation and conservation, the money that underwrites museum philanthropy and the art market, or the ways that art has shaped cultural imaginaries that make oil dependence feel like freedom. In an era of climate collapse, how is the imperative of a transition away from fossil fuels changing the art world? How are artists, curators, critics, conservators, and restorers working toward a world without oil?

An international series of conferences in Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Lagos will explore these questions—while also experimenting with modes of academic conversation that both maximize the value of in-person exchange and minimize our use of jet fuel. In-person events featuring local or regional speakers will be connected to the other sites by live stream. None of our Alliance funds will be used to pay for air travel.

The New York event will be held at the SOF/Heyman on March 3. The Paris event was held in December 2025 and the program and links to recordings are here.