Heidi Nitze Art × Environment 2026 Fellows - Brooklyn Botanic Garden
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Heidi Nitze Art × Environment 2026 Fellows
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Heidi Nitze Art × Environment 2026 Fellows

2026 Fellowship Team: Olalekan Jeyifous and AD—WO

Two men stand outdoors amid autumn trees—one in a black T-shirt and gold chains with arms crossed, the other in a yellow beanie and argyle sweater holding a small black notebook.
Olalaken Jeyifous and Emanuel Admassu. Photo by Jeremy Weine.

Supported by the Heidi Nitze Art × Environment Fellowship, Brooklyn-based artist Olalekan Jeyifous and the environmental art and architecture practice AD—WO collaborated with community members, climate scientists, and BBG’s horticulturists to create their 2026 project, Ancestral Ecologies.

The work explores ancient Latinx and Afrodiasporic beliefs around the intelligence of the natural world that understand matter, memory, and multispecies forces as interconnected, adapted, and communicative. Animism recalls Indigenous kinship philosophies that recognize the vitality of all living beings, standing in contrast to human-centered frameworks and opening new ways of imagining ecological relationships.

2026 Artist
  • Man with T-shirt that says White Castle stands in front of outdoor greenery.

    Olalekan Jeyifous

    Olalekan Jeyifous is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work reimagines the intersections of architecture, community, and the environment. His art has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Guggenheim Bilbao, and the Museum of Modern Art, which holds his work in its permanent collection, along with the Art Institute of Chicago and SFMOMA. He is the recipient of the Silver Lion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, the 2024 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, and two NYFA Fellowships. Jeyifous has held residencies at MacDowell, The Drawing Center’s Open Sessions, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and was co-commissioned to design a monument to Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm for New York City’s She Built NYC initiative.

2026 Environmental Thinker Team
  • Man with green collared T-shirt standing with arms crossed in front of glass panels.

    Emanuel Admassu

    Principal-in-charge, AD—WO

    Emanuel Admassu is founding principal of AD—WO and assistant professor at Columbia University, GSAPP. As a practicing architect, urbanist, and educator, Admassu’s work explores the intersections of spatial justice and urbanism. He is currently working on a book that articulates the vibrant relations between animist cultural practices and contemporary urban systems. The key findings from this research will inform AD—WO’s contributions to the Nitze Fellowship.

  • Woman with shoulder-length hair and tan colored button up posing in front of building with glass and white paneling.

    Jen Wood

    Principal, AD—WO

    Jen Wood is a founding principal of AD—WO and a registered architect in the state of New York. Wood brings 17+ years of experience working for leading architecture practices in Melbourne and New York. For the Nitze Fellowship, she will facilitate overall project management, drawing from her extensive experience leading environmentally ambitious projects like the Spiral Tower in New York and the Wetlands Discovery Center in Edithvale, Australia.

  • Man with mustache and black shirt poses in front of greenery.

    David Zhang

    Environmental Researcher, AD—WO

    As the 2024 John Belle Travel Fellow, David Zhang conducted field-based research on three Indigenous watershed remediation projects across the United States and Mexico. Zhang brings experience in environmental research and fabrication to the Nitze Fellowship.

Support

The Heidi Nitze Art × Environment Fellowship at Brooklyn Botanic Garden invites visionary artists and environmental thinkers to work in partnership to create site-specific installations that spark public engagement with pressing environmental challenges.

Image, top of page: Jeremy Weine