about, artist statement, awards
““I make this work because I believe the changes I observe affect how we experience life, deeply. My art can hold our attention on the plants, pollinators and the elements that are adapting to extreme climate. It cannot stop what is changing, but it can slow us down to remember what we might otherwise forget.”
“Using sumi-e (Japanese ink) allows me to move between abstraction and representation. I love to play between monochrome delicacy and dense tonal depth, because I am interested in capturing on paper the evanescent quality of nature itself.””
environmental storytelling through art
About
Vivienne Schadinsky is an award-winning contemporary artist, artist-researcher and arts educator. Her work interprets vulnerable natural ecosystems — seeds, plants, food crops, their pollinators, and the elements: air, fire, space, water and soil. Her practice begins with evidence from science, filtered through a framework of sustainability and philosophy and extends into art.
Early in her career, Vivienne fell in love with Japanese ink. In 2023, she became a member of the International Sumi-e Association, Tokyo - the first self-taught artist to be accepted into the association. She sources ink, washi paper, and handmade brushes directly from shokunin — the craftspeople of Japan — and works also with soil pigments and minerals, letting the materials' natural origins shape her process.
Vivienne works with scientists, ethicists and philosophers to inform her long-term projects on climate change, food security, and ecological systems. Her advisory board ‘The Current We Share’ includes expertise from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, the Natural History Museum, and universities worldwide.
She is also an educator and founder of the ‘Sumie Project’, developing a six-year, circular art curriculum for children and running workshops and talks for adults. As a publisher, she founded ‘What the Silence Grew’ (Fleet and Rhine Publishing).
Raised in Basel, Switzerland, she now lives and works in London. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan; the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Spitsbergen, Norway; the Turkish-Japanese Foundation, Ankara, Türkiye; Salotto Basel, Switzerland; and OmVed Gardens and the Barbican, London, UK, with work held in private collections across the UK, Europe, and the US.
Artist Statement
I paint seeds, flowers, food plants, pollinators and the elements. I am fascinated by the conditions life needs to thrive: whether a seed is buried or planted, and how life is tied to environmental balance.
I am a sumi-e artist. Each stroke is permanent, so you have to commit. I also make paper sculptures including materials found in my landscape, write and direct short films, self-publish zines and am developing books of environmental storytelling.
My series unfold over years. Each begins with nature observation and grows, through research and making, into both a concept and a narrative. The Future Food works carry an ambivalence, because I wonder what a balanced food system might look like in a shifting climate.
Committing to painting with sumi-e makes me think about hope. St Augustine said: "Hope has two daughters, Anger and Courage: anger at the way things are, courage to make sure they don't stay that way."
My work is a trace of time. It holds a stillness and a quiet poetry that does not reveal itself all at once, but unfolds slowly, over time. I hope viewers sense what connects us: with our first breath, we become part of the planet’s pulse. We are held by gravity, firmly planted here on earth.
Biography and CV available on request.
Further Education
2025 Vivienne has earned a certificate in How to teach sustainability, AMS Montessori Association. From this experience, she developed an art curriculum that connects artistic expression with environmental stewardship and introduces the students to the United Nation’ sustainable development goals (SDGs).
2025 Creative and Hopeful Responses to Climate Change, University of Oxford - Lifelong Learning
2024 Philosophy and Ethics in the Context of Climate Change, University of Oxford - Lifelong Learning
2023 AMI, Association Montessori Internationale, Orientation to Adolescent Studies, Montessori theory, child development, and adolescent education, ages 12–18.
Awards
2026 Asahi Shimbun Company Award International Sumi-e Association, Tokyo, and exhibited at the National Art Centre in Tokyo.
2025 Cultural Award for a Soya Bean Painting | Future Foods – International Sumi-e Association, Tokyo, and exhibited at the National Art Centre in Tokyo.
2024 Encouragement Award International Sumi-e Association, Tokyo, and exhibited at the National Art Centre in Tokyo.
Press
Please read here
’What speaks to the soul, escapes our measurements’ — Alexander von Humboldt