Suzaan Boettger 34 Within and Beyond the Art World: Environmentalist Criticism of Visual Art Abstract: In relation to literary ecocriticism, ecocritical analysis of visual art is in a nascent stage. Despite, or perhaps due to, the centrality of idealized representa- tions of nature in the history of art, and also because of the dominance of the gallery mercantile system as the chief means of display and dissemination of works of art, researched and documentary projects on ecosystems and vulnerable cultures and biotic matter, public art performing sustainability, and photographs as critical land- scapes, have been slow to gain attention. A genealogy of significant group exhibitions in museums is followed by focus on current approaches. Visual art is often called upon to effect political change; reified categories of political engagement and aes- thetic autonomy are dissolving in more nuanced conceptions of art’s social position and contributions. Issues of agency and materiality are becoming central, as well as environmental justice. The work of critical art historians Malcolm Miles, T. J. Demos, and Emily Eliza Scott are featured. Key Terms: Art, environmental, eco-art, photography, aesthetics, Demos Fig. 1: Richard Misrach. Trees, Hazardous Waste Site, Dow Chemical Corporation, Plaquemine, Louisiana, 1998, detail. Courtesy Richard Misrach.