The Earth Is Still Listening: Gresham Gallery’s Latest Exhibition Officially Debuts

By Rachel Mateo

Starting on Monday, Aug. 25, until Saturday, Dec. 20, Valley College’s Gresham Gallery debuts their latest free exhibition “The Earth Is Still Listening”, featuring many notable, talented  artists like Milford Zornes and Millard Sheets. Throughout this 2025 Fall semester at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., visitors will be able to encounter artworks that celebrate the ever-so-evolving connection between human and nature. 

This exhibition is a poetic showcase displaying a series of evocative paintings and compelling installations from artists that appreciate the natural world, with their respective pieces reflecting on the beauty and visual elegy of our beautiful land.

One of the many selected artists featured in this exhibition, Marciano Martinez, captured the splendor of untouched landscapes in his watercolor painting “Yosemite Valley at Night”, finished in 2013. This artwork is one that highlights the silence and solitude of Yosemite Valley; depicting a vivid image of what nature looks like untouched and unscathed by man. Although it may simply look like a well-detailed painting of Yosemite’s remarkable peaks, it should invite visitors to imagine nature’s fragility and complexity – to contemplate that perhaps this is more than just a painting, but a beautiful memory held in color. 

Another sophisticated and selected illustration that is displayed is John Phillips’ 1848 “Popocatépetl”. The chosen art medium to create this work was lithography, a planographic method of printing. The piece was inspired by Popocatepétl, an active volcano in central Mexico that was once covered in thick ice as depicted, but soon completely vanished due to rising temperatures and eruptions. From its rough terrain to its dense shrubbery, “Popocetépetl” encourages those who see it to admire and appreciate nature’s sublimity. Phillips’ artwork captures the dramatic and astonishing terrain of Mexico; it allows those who see this illustration to marvel at the sublime beauty in life. 

Gresham Gallery’s exhibition offers many more intriguing and thought-provoking artworks that captivate the environment in serene stillness or critical urgency; it allows visitors to self-reflect on current climate conditions that endanger the beauty of nature we know and love.

This exhibit is one to not miss; these selected artists utilize their talents in preserving the beauty and tranquility of essence – reminding all those who experience this showcase of what we may lose.