PARK CITY, UT, Jan. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Susan Swartz Studios presents Natural Order, a landmark exhibition bringing together signature photographs by Edward Burtynsky and Sebastião Salgado alongside celebrated paintings by Susan Swartz. Organized in partnership with Sundaram Tagore Gallery with a handpicked selection by U.S.–South African curator Claire Breukel, the exhibition reunites the three artists following their first collaboration at the 2022 Sotheby’s Impact Gala in support of Instituto Terra, the acclaimed reforestation initiative founded by Sebastião and Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado to restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Natural Order celebrates nature’s vitality and magnificence while drawing urgent attention to the environmental crisis facing Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
The exhibition opens during the Sundance Film Festival’s final year in Park City and serves as the backdrop for a series of climate-responsive events and public programs throughout the month. Its debut coincides with the premiere of The Lake, a highly anticipated documentary film directed by Abby Ellis that examines the environmental and public health emergency surrounding the Great Salt Lake. The film’s premiere will culminate in an opening reception at Susan Swartz Studios, located just miles from the lake itself.
“This film is about survival and averting disaster through the steady efforts of people who refuse to look away from what’s happening right before their eyes,” says Ellis. “We feel gratified to align with the work of these three prominent environmental artists, who are helping to raise funds and awareness for Great Salt Lake at a critical time.”
Renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky (b. 1955) is internationally recognized for illuminating humanity’s impact on the environment through richly detailed images set within landscapes that are at once vibrant and decaying. Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado (1944–2025) is celebrated for his masterful black-and-white photographs — epic in scale yet profoundly human—capturing moments of labor, migration and ecological transformation. Celebrating the interplay and interdependency between human beings and nature, Susan Swartz pays homage to the natural elements that fuel our capacities to exist. Her immersive works draw directly from the natural elements that sustain life, rehumanizing our relationship to the environment through textures and color.
“Edward, Sebastião and I have dedicated our artistic careers to raising awareness and generating appreciation for our surroundings,” says Swartz. “My own illness due to mercury poisoning – believed to be from eating contaminated fish -followed by Lyme disease, instilled an ardent motivation to ensure our environment and our food sources remain uncontaminated.”
The exhibition transports viewers across the globe in both subject matter and medium. Four color photographs by Burtynsky invite close inspection through tightly framed details, while seven black-and-white photographs by Salgado depict grand moments across less experienced scenery. Seven paintings and a multi-paneled painting installation show Swartz’s versatility through earlier brushstroke depictions of trees, as well as relief collages incorporating natural objects embedded into the lusciously painted surfaces.
“The majestic artworks of these three artistic giants Edward Burtynsky, Sebastião Salgado and Susan Swartz inspire wonder, connection and appreciation, and ultimately awaken in us a deeper sense of care,” says curator Claire Breukel.
To support preservation efforts, 20 percent of all exhibition sales will be donated to initiatives dedicated to preserve the Great Salt Lake.
Swartz underscores the urgency of the exhibition’s mission: “The Great Salt Lake is at a tipping point. As the most populated lake in the world, the toxic soil that will be left as it dries up will make it uninhabitable, not to mention eradicate its biodiversity.”
Swartz previously served as the Official Olympic Environmental Artist for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Partnering with Dr. Jane Goodall, Louie Psihoyos, and others, on environmental campaigns, Swartz also supports the vision and production of documentary films that seek to shed light on social and environmental injustice, including Academy Award and Sundance Film Festival winners.
Natural Order is on view at Susan Swartz Studios, 260 Main St. Park City, Utah 84060, through February 23, 2026.
To download the exhibition catalogue click here.
- Natural Order exhibition featuring three celebrated artists: Edward Burtynsky, Sebastião Salgado, and Susan Swartz.