Sustainable Expressions: John Sabraw

SUSTAINABLE EXPRESSIONS - POP UP with Gallery Les Bois: Daily 12pm - 7pm

Madera, Treehouse Hotel London, 14–15 Langham Place, London W1B 2QS 8 - 28 June 2026

Art, innovation and environmental transformation

Gallery Les Bois, a sustainability-led contemporary art gallery based in Chelsea, presented Sustainable Expressions, a solo exhibition of paintings by artist and environmentalist John Sabraw at Treehouse Hotel London. The exhibition brought Sabraw’s distinctive practice into an intimate hotel setting, inviting visitors to experience painting as a site of material innovation and environmental repair.

The presentation also drew attention to key moments in the sustainability calendar, including World Water Week, World Refill Day and London Climate Action Week.

Pollution transformed into pigment

Sabraw is widely recognised for his pioneering collaboration with environmental engineer Guy Riefler. Their work addresses acid mine drainage in Ohio, returns cleaner water to local river systems and refines recovered minerals into stable, high-quality pigments used in Sabraw’s paintings.

His work is held in numerous public and corporate collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu; Elmhurst Art Museum, Illinois; Emprise Bank; Bank of America; and Accenture. He is Professor of Art at Ohio University, where he leads programmes in Painting, Drawing and Digital Art + Technology, and serves as a Board Advisor at Scribble Art Workshop in New York.

Sabraw’s research and studio practice have been profiled internationally, including by TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, BBC Radio, Time and CBS, as well as in documentaries and specialist environmental publications.

Material responsibility and artistic quality

For Gallery Les Bois, Sustainable Expressions reflected our curatorial commitment to artists who unite conceptual depth, material responsibility and formal refinement. Our programme focuses on practices that interrogate how art is made—its resources, production and impact—while prioritising works that are sensorially and emotionally compelling.

Sabraw’s paintings reward two forms of attention: first, an encounter with their surface, colour and light; then a deeper understanding of the environmental transformation embedded within each work. This union of beauty, research and responsible material practice lies at the heart of the Gallery Les Bois programme.

The Treehouse Hotel presentation

Presented at Treehouse Hotel London, Sustainable Expressions offered an opportunity to spend time with a carefully curated body of work bringing together contemporary abstraction, scientific collaboration and environmental transformation.

Exhibition details

Exhibition: Sustainable Expressions — John Sabraw
Dates: 8–28 June 2026
Opening hours: Daily, 12.00pm–7.00pm
Venue: Madera, Treehouse Hotel London, 14–15 Langham Place, London W1B 2QS

Frequently asked questions

What was Sustainable Expressions?

Sustainable Expressions was a solo presentation of John Sabraw’s paintings, exploring how contemporary abstraction, environmental science and material innovation can coexist within a visually compelling artistic practice.

How does John Sabraw make paint from pollution?

Sabraw collaborates with environmental engineer Guy Riefler to recover iron-rich material from acid mine drainage in Ohio. The material is refined into stable pigments that can be used in his paintings while supporting work to improve polluted waterways.