Historical Perspectives • Contemporary Expression • Pop Surrealism
❖ Sister Exhibitions: Center for Families & Animals (Family Spirals)

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The postwar period marks a profound shift in how artists explore our relationships with animals. While artists throughout history have portrayed animals as companions, symbols, and individuals in their own right, contemporary artists increasingly examine questions of consciousness, ecological crisis, species extinction, and the ethics of living within an interconnected world. Through diverse styles and personal visions, these works reflect on grief, memory, compassion, and the enduring bonds that unite human and nonhuman lives.

Erika Carter, Untitled, 2008.

Andrea Bowers. Eco Grief Extinction Series. 2022.

Each of these three large-sized pictorial elegies on collaged cardboard bases depicts a bird species that has vanished – Bachman Warbler, Molokai Creeper, Ivory-billed Woodpecker; they are among the 23 bird species that the U.S. government declared extinct in 2021. The birds are depicted in states of suspension and remembrance with women who empathize with and grieve their plight. Such bold juxtapositions are an appeal for the dignity, safety and rights of both. The words in the corners of these paintings are from poet and healer, Deena Metzger: “Can the world mend in this body?” / “How you treat us is how you treat the Earth” / “what must be undone in order to heal”. Read more here.

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Historical Perspectives • Contemporary Expression • Pop Surrealism
❖ Sister Exhibitions: Center for Families & Animals (Family Spirals)