The Blue Forest, an immersive installation by San Diego–based marine scientist, freediver, and artist Oriana Poindexter, opens Saturday, November 8 (3–6 p.m.) in Avalon. The exhibition transports visitors into the underwater world of Catalina Island’s iconic kelp forests through a walk-through environment of luminous, ocean-blue silk panels and an ambient underwater soundscape recorded by the artist on her dives.

Highlights include:

• A first-of-its-kind kelp forest installation: Life-size cyanotype photograms created from native marine flora collected by Poindexter while free-diving just off Catalina’s shoreline, contact-printed onto flowing silk.
• Immersive soundscape: Ambient underwater audio layered into the installation, evoking the meditative calm of being submerged.
• Scientific and artistic rigor: Poindexter holds a master’s degree from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and creates each piece using historically significant photographic processes.
• Opening Reception: Saturday, November 8, from 3–6 p.m. at Catalina Museum for Art & History in Avalon