Oscar Tuazon: Salt Lake Water School

Oscar Tuazon’s artistic practice investigates the power structures that govern access to land, water, and infrastructure. Central to his work is the Water School, an educational space that treats water as a vital connector between people and their environments. The Water School is designed to move with the natural water cycle—from mountain springs to oceans, from underground aquifers to the sky. Its architecture reflects the fluid, adaptive nature of water and is shaped through collaborative building processes.

Tuazon has extended this concept with Salt Lake Water School, a new modular structure that operates on a smaller, more intimate scale. Focused on the Great Salt Lake, this artwork blends architectural design with written elements to draw attention to the lake’s environmental urgency, cultural significance, and economic role. The open, interactive design invites public engagement, offering a space for reflection and discussion about water conservation.

Inspired by Anishinaabe leader Winona LaDuke, the project reminds us that we are in relationship with the natural world, not separate from it. Environmental consciousness, Tuazon suggests, is not a political luxury but a form of spiritual and communal resilience, deeply rooted in Indigenous knowledge and reciprocal care for the Earth.

About the Artist

Oscar Tuazon (b. 1975, Seattle) lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include Works for Water at FJK-3 Contemporary Art Space, Vienna; Oscar Tuazon: Fire Worship at the Aspen Art Museum; Oscar Tuazon: Collaborator at Bellevue Arts Museum; and Oscar Tuazon: Water School at MSU Broad Museum. In 2025, MAXXI, Rome, hosted an expansive exhibition curated by Tuazon, Something in the Water. In 2023, a major mid-career retrospective of the artist’s work, Oscar Tuazon: Building, was exhibited at Kunst Museum Winterthur, Switzerland. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, which concurrently hosted Oscar Tuazon: Water School in early 2023, and the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, which also exhibited Oscar Tuazon: All We Need later that year. A comprehensive monograph on the artist’s work, Oscar Tuazon: Building, was jointly published by DoPe Press for all three exhibitions. Tuazon was included in the 2021 Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil, and the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. He has been commissioned for numerous public art works including Light Rings for Noor Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in 2023, Growth Rings for Central Wharf Park in Boston in 2019; a large-scale installation Une colonne d’eau in the Place Vendôme, Paris in 2017; Burn the Formwork for Skulptur Projekte Münster, Germany in 2017; and Un pont sans fin for Nouveaux Commanditaires, Belfort, France in 2016.

About Wake the Great Salt Lake

Wake the Great Salt Lake is a temporary public art project supported by the Salt Lake City Arts Council, Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge. These works are designed to engage and educate the public on the challenges facing the lake, inspiring both residents and visitors to take action.

Visit wakegsl.org to learn more.