Oil. Inspired by the splendid fall foliage outside northeastern American homes, many of which are heated with Nigerian oil, Jerry Buhari has created a work that celebrates beauty in nature at the same time that it critiques environmental degradation and highlights international connections. Autumnal colors move like oil spilled on a Niger Delta river on his canvas. A white footprint rests unmistakably amidst the flow of color to address competing concepts of land ownership based on heritage or political and economic conquest. Where the artist was raised in Nigeria, farm owners could easily identify trespassers by their footprints.

Coal and climate change. Georgia Papageorge draws visitors into an epic and timely drama between fire and ice. On one screen she has projected imagery documenting the melting of mount Kilimanjaro's glacier in Tanzania and, on the other, the rampant illegal coal trade in central Africa that is leading to increased deforestation and carbon emissions. As the artist says, "If you destroy the trees and turn living wood into dead charcoal-transpiration ceases. Ground cover disappears and desertification takes place. You have burnt your water."

Water and plastic. Working with dramatic shadows, Bakary Daou creates seductive, allegorical images. Here, he has photographed three children sitting atop or crouching within refrigerators that do not, or cannot, work, while a luminous plastic bag of water floats in the foreground. For Daou, refrigerators and plastic bags symbolize longevity. For better or worse, these things endure. Humans and water, by contrast, are fragile.

Connecting the underground and heaven. Hassan Echair works with combinations of stone, wood, and cord to explore the tensions between the gravity of the earth and the vertical flight of esprit (the spirit or mind). As he says, "between the horizontal and the vertical, there is equilibrium. One seeks this equilibrium." He envisions an underground-on which the living walk and in which the dead are buried-that is held in balance with the upward trajectory of the soul.

Reforestation. In 1992 Kekelwa Mundia sold his desk and used the proceeds to buy crafts from local artisans. Two decades later, 22 Lozi communities have joined his organization, called Mumwa Crafts, to carve wood, weave baskets, and produce leather wares. Twenty percent of all proceeds are reinvested in an initiative to replant indigenous trees so that there will continue to be enough teak and other woods to carve and roots to weave. These vessels are stylistically consistent with those of the past century. The platter could be used to keep stew warm; its handle is based on the roofline of the Lozi king's palace. The jar could be used to store sour milk porridge, and its handle evokes the stools sat upon by persons of status.

E-waste. A young man named Yaw walks behind a computer monitor that has been overturned and set on fire. Yaw focuses on his work with heroic dignity, surrounded by toxic fumes as he burns discarded electronics to reclaim copper and other metals without the benefit of gloves or facemask. Capturing Yaw at a dramatic angle, Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo creates an epic image that challenges each of us to consider where our iPhones, computers, and other electronics go when we throw them "away."