Updated: February 5, 2013 11:38 AM | By Ula Ilnytzky, The Associated Press, thecanadianpress.com

Exhibitions plumb artistic responses to disaster

This undated image provided by the artist Coke Wisdom O'Neal was created when floodwaters from Superstorm Sandy oxidzed a photograph of a woman resting her head on a man's shoulder, turning it into an abstract image, in his basement studio in the Red Hook neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York. O'Neal will include the piece in a solo exhibition at a Chelsea gallery in Manhattan in March. (AP Photo/Coke Wisdom O'Neal)

NEW YORK, N.Y. - A New York exhibition of art inspired by Superstorm Sandy is being included in a larger look at how artists respond creatively to natural disasters.

The "After Effects" exhibition features works by more than 20 artists and is opening Friday at a gallery in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood.

Many studios and galleries were in waterfront warehouse areas that suffered some of the worst damage.

Artist Coke Wisdom O'Neal is showing watercolours based on family slides transformed by Sandy's floodwaters into psychedelic cloud-like images.

The Craft Emergency Relief Fund is collecting stories of artistic responses to disaster and plans to post them soon on its Studio Protector website. The fund is a national non-profit that helps artists in need.

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Online:

Studio Protector: http://studioprotector.org