Baker Artist Portfolios

Samantha Sethi is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores concepts of ephemerality, entropy, human impact on the environment, and our experience of time. Sethi earned her MFA from American University and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, CA; the Creative Alliance in Baltimore; the Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, D.C.; Field Projects, NYC; Krupic Kersting Gallery in Cologne, and Hilbert Raum project space in Berlin. Sethi has created public art projects commissioned for the Baltimore Office and Promotion & the Arts and the Frederick Arts Council. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and MICA. Samantha Sethi lives and works in Baltimore, MD. 

Artist Statement
My interdisciplinary art practice is grounded in research and inquiry into the human experience of the natural world, our impact on ecological systems, and the interplay between natural and constructed environments. Working across media—including drawing, painting, sculpture, analog photography, digital video, projection, and interactive installation—I often integrate natural processes and systems. My work explores the dissonance between geological time and human temporal perception, while critically examining biodiversity loss, climate change, and anthropogenic transformation of land.

My current research includes the study of natural history museum artifacts and displays, historical cartography, and environmental records such as waterway pollution data. I also investigate the classification of plant, animal, and insect species—particularly those labeled as threatened, native, or invasive—questioning the cultural and scientific frameworks that inform such labels.

I employ cyanotype and anthotype photograms, as well as light-based sculptural installations, to examine plant agency and adaptation within human-altered landscapes. The images, produced using early photographic techniques and sustainable plant-based emulsions (e.g., spinach, turmeric, berries), are exposed by sunlight, emphasizing ecological interdependence and the materiality of time.