BMA Presents Rachel Lee Hovnanian: Nature Deficit Disorder in Historic Spring House

Immersion room installation invites visitors to disconnect from digital life and reconnect with nature  

BALTIMORE, MD (January 21, 2026)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announces the presentation of conceptual artist Rachel Lee Hovnanian’s immersive installation, Nature Deficit Disorder, on view in the museum’s historic Spring House from April 1 through May 31, 2026. This evocative work invites visitors to pause, surrender their phones, and step into a simulated nighttime forest—a space designed to encourage mindfulness and reconnection with the natural world. The presentation at the BMA marks Hovnanian’s first solo museum installation and continues her decades-long engagement with the effects of technology on our lives.

The installation draws its title from a term coined by journalist Richard Louv to describe the growing disconnection from nature and its impact on mental health and attention spans—a conversation that is growing in urgency as digital overstimulation is increasingly recognized as detrimental to human wellbeing.

The visitor’s experience begins prior to entering the Spring House when staff dressed in lab coats collect and lock away each visitor’s surrendered phone, then offer a sample of Mountain Dew presented in a urine specimen cup. This is a nod to Hovnanian’s investigation of a broader culture that often seeks quick, synthetic fixes over the benefits of more natural approaches. Inside the immersion room, visitors encounter fir trees, live insects, crunching leaves, and a faux campfire, illuminated only by lantern light. By requiring visitors to temporarily give up their phones, the work creates an intentional break from technology, offering a contemplative experience that invites visitors to be present in the moment and connect with the environment. As visitors exit the space, they are given soil and seeds to take with them, transforming the immersive encounter into an ongoing, embodied act of care. This final gesture reinforces the work’s central themes, inviting participants to cultivate a living connection to the natural world long after they leave the Spring House.

“My work has long explored how technology shapes attention, mental health, and human connection. This installation emerged from my observations of society’s growing digital dependence, alongside my own experience of it,” said Hovnanian. “What do we lose when our lives are constantly mediated by screens? I hope to offer a pause—an invitation to rediscover how it feels to be fully present.”

Hovnanian’s installation is the final exhibition presented as part of the BMA’s Turn Again to the Earth initiative, a multi-year effort that models commitments to sustainability and fosters dialogue on climate change. Through exhibitions, programs, and a citywide eco-challenge, the initiative explores the intersections of art and ecology as well as approaches to a more sustainable future. Nature Deficit Disorder amplifies these goals by inviting audiences to consider the psychological and cultural consequences of estrangement from nature and the urgent need to restore balance in an increasingly digitized world.

“For more than a year, the BMA has served as a site of active dialogue about the environment, sustainability, and the important role that art can play in spurring engagement and action.  Hovnanian’s installation beautifully embodies the vision that has guided our work for Turn Again to the Earth as it offers a powerful and intimate experience for visitors,” said Asma Naeem, Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of the BMA. “It reminds us that sustainability is not only about systems and structures—it begins with our own relationship to the natural environment.”

Rachel Lee Hovnanian: Nature Deficit Disorder is curated by Katie Cooke, BMA Manager of Curatorial Affairs. The exhibition is supported by the Ford Foundation.

Rachel Lee Hovnanian

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.