Giovanni Aloi

Dr. Giovanni Aloi is an Adjunct Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), specializing in the representation of nature and the environment in art. He holds a Ph.D. from Goldsmiths University of London (2014) and has authored seminal works such as Art & Animals (2011), Speculative Taxidermy (2018), and Why Look at Plants? (2019). His research bridges posthumanism, critical plant studies, and decolonial frameworks, interrogating anthropocentric narratives in art and ecology.

As Editor-in-Chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Aloi fosters interdisciplinary dialogue on non-human subjects. He has curated major exhibitions including Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits (2022) and Materialities (2025), and co-edits the Art after Nature book series with Caroline Picard. Awards include the 2020 Karen and Jim Frank Teaching Award and grants from DCASE and the Terra Foundation.

Aloi’s work critically examines ecological crises through art, advocating for ethical reimaginings of human-nature relationships. His courses at SAIC address themes like material politics, sustainable artworlds, and the Anthropocene’s impact on artistic practice.