2017 - Mission Statement:

DeXtinction brings the archaic and primordial into our postmodern present. The exhibit reminds us that our contemporary interest in aesthetic spectacle originates in the spectacular creations of the natural world, evolving over millions and billions of years. 

Today’s art world is a frenetic celebration of human creativity - a field where styles change and evolve constantly. The artists and galleries who capture the zeitgeist reap tremendous financial rewards. We tend to forget that all of this creative ferment we call Modern Art has taken place in a micro-millisecond when we compare it to the eons of time it has taken for our planet’s minerals to form and for life to reach its present level of complexity. 

Just as Tyrannosaurus rex was once the dominant species - the predator ruling the top of the food chain - humans now, similarly, find themselves at the pinnacle of life on Earth. Our collective actions today determine the fate of our planet’s ecosystem, signi-ficantly impacting the climate and the geosphere. We now have the capacity to bring about our own extinc-tion. And indeed, there are many signs we are approaching that critical threshold.

Perhaps at this time, we must reevaluate our own creations in relationship to the incredible legacy that the Earth has left for us. DeXtinction is a contemporary spectacle that highlights the beauty and magnificence of the Earth’s natural treasures, valuing them as a miraculous art form in themselves. By connecting us to the Earth’s ancient provenance, these extraordinary artifacts can point us toward a future where we prevent our own extinction by reconnecting to the natural world which has formed us. 

We hope these ancient treasures can stand as symbolic of the unification we need now, pointing the way from the unconscious inertia of the past to a new stage of conscious evolution. Taking all of the knowled-ge we have amassed, breaking free of our primitive heritage, we can actualize our full potential, realizing ourselves as an expression of the continuum of all life on Earth.