VIRGINIA HANUSIK
b. 1992, New York, United States
EDUCATION
2026 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2014 BA, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2026 Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Artist-in-Residence
2026 Rhode Island School of Design, Fine Arts Dean’s Award
2025 Rhode Island School of Design, Henry Wolf Scholar
2025 Rhode Island School of Design, Graduate Commons Grant Award
2024 Paris Photo-Aperture First Photobook Award Shortlist
2022 A Studio in the Woods, Artist-in-Residence
2022 Andy Warhol Foundation, Platforms Grant Recipient
2021 Pulitzer Center, Connected Coastlines Grant Recipient
2021 British Journal of Photography, Decade of Change Award
2020 Exhibit Columbus, Photography Fellow
2018 Graham Foundation, Exhibition Grant Recipient
2017 Graham Foundation, Research and Development Grant Recipient
2014 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Grant Recipient
BOOKS
2024 Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Periphery, MAS Context, Chicago, IL
2021 On the Origins of High Water, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
2019 A Receding Coast: The Architecture and Infrastructure of South Louisiana, Front Gallery, New Orleans, LA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Written on the Wind, Baxter Street Gallery, New York, NY
New Contemporaries, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI
Graduate MFA Exhibition, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2025 The Unending Stream: Chapter Two, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
2024 Thoughts that Stare, Red Eye Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Snapshot: Climate, Pitt Community College Library, Winterville, NC
Snapshot: Climate, Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA
What Matters Here, Small Center for Collaborative Design, New Orleans, LA
2023 Water, 6018 North, Chicago, IL
Snapshot: Climate, Center for the Study of the American South, Chapel Hill, NC
2021 On the Origins of High Water, Exhibit Columbus, Columbus, IN
2020 Losing Louisiana: Land, People, and Culture, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
2019 Design with Nature Now, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Eco-connectivity, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2018 Constructing the Break, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
2017 New Water Music, New Orleans Airlift, New Orleans, LA
2016 Controls and Counter Reactions, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED PUBLISHED WRITING
2025 “An Unsettling Resistance,” Storefront for Art and Architecture 2025 Reader
2024 “An Elusive and Indefinable Boundary,” ISSUES, American Academy of Sciences
“Indeterminate Landscapes,” Landscape Architecture Magazine
2023 “Constructing a Flood,” Burnaway
“Louisiana Story,” Oxford American
2022 “Environmental Alterations,” ARQ 111 – Degrowth
“All the Good Earth,” Bitter Southerner
“After the Flood,” The American Scholar
2021 “Ida Showed the Fossil Fuel Industry Has Left Louisiana Defenseless,” Earther
2020 “Architecture’s obstinacy in the face of climate change normalizes the precariousness of coastal living,” The Architect’s
Newspaper
“Visualizing Disasters and an Ongoing Crisis,” MAS Context
2019 “A Receding Coast,” MAS Context
SELECTED TALKS AND PANELS
2026 On Instability, University of Louisiana Lafayette, Lafayette, LA
2025 The Unending Stream Artist Talk, Photo NOLA Festival, New Orleans, LA
Vanishing Coasts: Place and Preservation, New Orleans Book Festival, New Orleans, LA
Photographing Manresa Island, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
2024 Jules L. Cahn John H. Lawrence Photography Lecture, Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
Canadian Centre for Architecture Pop-up Book Talk, SO-IL, New York, NY
In Conversation with Virginia Hanusik, Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Oceans Springs, MS
Indeterminate Landscapes, University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design
What Matters Here Artist Talk, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Into the Quiet and the Light Book Launch, Garden District Book Shop, New Orleans, LA
Engaging New Orleans Artists with Water: Brackish Artist Residency, American Society of
Society of Landscape Architecture Annual Conference, St. Paul, MN
Swamplands Open Session, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, NY
Current Work, Graham Foundation, Chicago, IL
2023 Current Work, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kingston, NY
Engineering Ecosystems: The Mississippi River Watershed and its Infrastructure, MAS Context, Chicago, IL
Floodplain Futures: Flood Insurance and the Economy of Climate Change, MAS Context, Chicago, IL
Current Work, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL
2022 Climate Change: Artistic Responses, Philosophical Analyses, University of Piedmont Amedeo Avogadro, Italy
Designing a Green New Deal, Yale School of Architecture Review Critic, New Haven, CT
Town. Houses., Tulane University School of Architecture Review Critic, New Orleans, LA
2021 Photographing the Climate Crisis, Columbia University, New York, NY
Talking Climate: Displacements: A Conversation with Virginia Hanusik and R. Van Newkirk III, The Climate Museum, New
York, NY
2020 Changing the Visual Narrative of Climate Change, City University of New York, New York, NY
Our Changing Shores, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2019 The Case for Managed Retreat, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, NY
2016 Planning for a Resilient New Orleans, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Green Infrastructure and Workforce Development, Water Environment Federation International Conference, Washington,
D.C.
Water Entrepreneurship in New Orleans, State of the Coast 2016, New Orleans, LA
2015 Young Leaders in Water, Great Water Cities Summit: Collaborating for a Resilient Future, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2026 Quadros, Karly. “What Is the Next Generation of Artists Making? We Asked MFA Students to Open Their Studios.”
Cultured Magazine
2025 Risher, Jan. “Here are 5 authors we're looking forward to at the New Orleans Book Festival.” The New Orleans Advocate
2024 Adno, Mike. “In Louisiana, A Photographer Charts Storms and Weather as Markers of Time.” Aperture
Rapp, Jake. “New Orleans photographer Virginia Hanusik captures where South Louisiana life and water collide in new
book.” The New Orleans Advocate
Fleming, Billy. “In Conversation with Amy Stelly and Virginia Hanusik.” Journal of Architectural Education Vol. 28 Issue 2
Sanchez-Torres, Daniel. “On finding your tool for understanding the world: Artist and writer Virginia Hanusik discusses
developing an art practice and subject focus, how research expands a project, and teaching yourself along the way.” The
Creative Independent
Luckman, Alexander. “Virginia Hanusik’s new photo book diverts our attention to the everyday impacts of climate crisis.”
The Architect’s Newspaper
Brown, Joanna. “Photographer captures climate change in Louisiana’s landscapes.” The Acadiana Advocate
Editors. “Photos show how climate change is shaping the Louisiana coast.” Yale Climate Connections
Peters, Xander. “How to stop a state from sinking.” MIT Technology Review
Editors. “A Look Inside the Titles Shortlisted for the 2024 PhotoBook Awards.” Aperture Spaggiari, Ottavia. “Eroding
Indigenous Sovereignty.” The Nation
2023 Fulleylove, Rebecca. “The Photographers Documenting Climate Change.” Creative Review
Lange, Jeva. “17 Climate Books to Read in 2024.” Heated
Rigou, Vasia. “Eco-Anxiety Through a Cultural Lens: A Review of “Periphery” at MAS Context.” NewCity Chicago
West, Allyn, “Virginia Hanusik’s photographs, now on view at MAS Context, study the front lines of the climate crisis,” The
Architect’s Newspaper
2022 Green, Bobbie. “An Ever-Changing River: Examining Where Land Meets Water.” Environmental Defense Fund
Herrera, Kayla. “Why Virginia Hanusik wants to humanize natural disaster,” Document Journal.
Heffker, Lauren. “Perspectives: Virginia Hanusik,” Country Roads Magazine
Logan, Katherine. “Climate Change and the Crisis of Inequity,” Architectural Record
Esealuka, Michael. “Black Louisianans fight to rebuild a year after Ida,” Southerly Magazine
2021 Maher, Daniel. “Virginia Hanusik on changing the visual narrative of climate change.” British Journal of Photography
Kehoe, Jacqueline. “Ecotourism could help the ‘Amazon of North America’ recover,” National Geographic
Sims, Shannon. “As Louisianans Flee Hurricanes, Natural Gas Dollars and Jobs Flood In,” Bloomberg Businessweek
Yawn, Andrew. “Louisiana photographer aims to portray climate change without the disaster,” USA Today
Rao, Anjulie. “Exhibit Columbus explores the interconnected ecosystems and built environments of the Mississippi
watershed,” The Architect’s Newspaper
Parker, Halle. “Grand Isle: Louisiana’s Last Inhabited Barrier Island,” The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate
Editors. “All the Good Earth,” PORT Magazine
2020 Hickman, Matt. “Exhibit Columbus Announces 2020-2021 Curatorial Theme and Photography Fellows,” The Architect’s
Newspaper
Nordeson, Catherine. “Top Down Bottom Up,” PLOT Journal
Editors. “Earth Day at 50,” Places Journal
Editors. “The Architecture Lobby Earth Week: Communicating the Climate Crisis with Virginia Hanusik,” The Architect’s
Newspaper
McKibben, Bill. “The Nature of Crisis” The New Yorker
Moore, Jacob. “POWER: Infrastructure in America.” Buell Center for the Study of AmericanArchitecture
Editors. “Sinking Slowly.” Oxford American
2019 Snoad, Laura. “Virginia Hanusik’s Shots of Louisiana Challenge Disaster-Focused Depictions of Climate Change.” It’s
Nice That
Editors. “Illuminating the Truth: The Role of Photography in Climate Change.” PDN
Kazanecki, Isabella. “Photography and Our Rising Seas.” Musee Magazine
Reckdahl, Katie. “When the Ground Gives Way: Photographs of Bayou Corne,” Places Journal
Blair, Jen. “Bearing Witness to Climate Change: 9 Artists Making an Impact.” World Literature Today
2017 Feldman, Nina. “Impossible Photos Show a Different View of New Orleans.” Next City
Daniels, J.D., “The World’s Gone to Hell, But at Least We’ve Got Milk,” The Paris Review
Culvahouse, Tim. “Impossible City: Photographs of New Orleans,” Places Journal
O’Dowd, Peter. “A Refrain as Louisiana’s Coast Washes Away,” Here & Now
Editors. “The Built Environment,” Oxford American
2016 Bliss, Laura. “Photographing the Two Sides of Louisiana’s Levees.” The Atlantic
Editors. “Encroaching Water.” Oxford American
Campanella, Richard. “Backwater: Landscapes of the Mississippi Delta.” Places Journal