Animals

Juried by Jesse Firestone

About the Juror

Jesse Firestone is a curator, producer, and writer of contemporary art. He has held curatorial positions at Montclair State University, Wave Hill, The Shed, and Residency Unlimited. Across these roles, Firestone has organized exhibitions, commissions, and public programs that foreground process-driven and socially engaged practices, with particular attention to artists working through conceptual, queer, and discursive lineages.

At Wave Hill, he commissioned site-responsive projects that engaged the garden’s natural and social histories, including works exploring ecological restoration, human–nonhuman entanglements, animisms, and interspecies relations. At Montclair State University, he organized solo exhibitions and thematic group shows grounded in interdisciplinary analysis, connecting the University’s Galleries to a wide range of academic fields. At The Shed, he managed Open Call, an expansive commissioning program that supported 52 artists addressing topics from Indigeneity and ecology to technology and identity.

His exhibitions have been featured in The New York Times, Art F City, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Filthy Dreams, and other publications. In addition to his institutional work, Firestone is the founder of JFirestone Arts LLC, a curatorial and writing consultancy with clients including Sugar Hill Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Harvard University, Kunstraum LLC, Facebook/META, and others. His writing has appeared in Sculpture Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Document Journal, Slate, and Baron Books.

Curatorial Statement

When reviewing submissions for this open call, I was struck by the sheer range of interpretations of the theme Animals. Yet this expansiveness is hardly surprising as animals are integrated into social systems, coexist with us in wild and domestic spaces, and carry symbolic meaning across cultures.

I selected 39 artists for inclusion in The Menagerie, Inbetween representing sculpture, photography, video, and works on paper. These diverse approaches to making have been grouped into distinct thematic sections: Familiar Familial, Dead Dog Writhing, Slithering, and Species Resplendent.

– Jesse Firestone

Familiar Familial

Anneke Bosma / Allison Butler / Violet Costello / Marie Roberts / Lan Fie / Brian Hite /Rebecca Katz / Mary Mattingly / Milena Guberinic / Sherry Kerlin /On Daydreaming / Ahyun Jeon

What would a show about animals be without portraits of pets? Familiar Familial features paintings, videos, and drawings of beloved pets that span the silly, the serious, and the supernatural.

Anneke Bosma’s video Integrate opens the section with an uncanny portrait of an owner and their dog. The camera frames the animal from the neck down—dressed in floral anklets and a skirt, accentuating its curves and humanoid posture, blurring the boundaries between companion, object, and performer.

Paintings by Allison Butler (Mediations by the Window), Violet Costello (Art in America), and Marie Roberts (Washday) situate pets within domestic interiors, seamlessly at home in a range of environments. Works by Lan Fie (Dog Wearing a Pink Scarf), Brian Hite (LuLu), Rebecca Katz (What If?), and Mary Mattingly’s suite of illustrations highlight the unique personalities of our pets through humor, speculation, and drama.

The works of Milena Guberinic (Electric Familiar), Sherry Kerlin (Angel Appearing to an Aging Poodle), and On Daydreaming (Landlord 1, Landlord 2) amplify the psychic dimensions of pet-keeping, where affection shades into the supernatural, surreal, and superstitious. And a special shout-out goes to Ahyun Jeon’s I Got Your Back—an undeniably, lovingly weird drawing of an animal’s anus, a far-too-familiar sight for pet owners everywhere.

Anneke Bosma
integrate

**Allison Butler**
*Mediations by the Window*
Acrylic
10" x 10" x 0.5"
NFS

**Violet Costello**
*Art in America*
Acrylic on canvas
48" x 60" x 1.5"
$9,000.00

**Marie Roberts**
*Washday (Black Cat Frances washing)*
Ink on paper
9" x 9" x 0"
$100.00

**Lan Fei**
*Dog wearing a pink scarf*
Oil painting on canvas
15.75" x 11.81" x 0.79"
$600.00

**Rebecca Katz**
*What if?*
Screenprint (small variable edition)
26.5" x 23" x 0"
$2,200.00

**Brian Hite**
*Lulu*
Charcoal
16" x 16" x 1"
$749.00

**Mary Mattingly**
*MINE MINE, I Got IT!*
Acrylic, pencil, collage on paper
20" x 27" x 0"
$1,650.00

**Mary Mattingly**
*Crazy For Squirrels*
Acrylic, pencil, collage on paper
20" x 27" x 0"
$1,650.00

**Mary Mattingly**
*Just Give It To Me!*
Acrylic, pencil, collage on paper
20" x 27" x 0"
$1,650.00

**Milena Guberinic**
*Electric Familiar*
Watercolor
12" x 9" x 1"
$700.00

**Sherry Kerlin**
*Angel Appearing to an Aging Poodle*
Ink on archival paper
9" x 7" x 0.16"
$900.00

**On Daydreaming Leave**
*Landlord2*
Photography
8" x 12" x 0"
NFS

**Ahyun Jeon**
*I Got Your Back*
Graphite and oil on canvas
20" x 16" x 1.5"
$800.00

**On Daydreaming Leave**
*Landlord1*
Photography
8" x 12" x 0"
NFS

Dead Dog Writhing

Alejandro Garcia / Constance Thalken / Nina Klementina Clavijo-Telepneva / Paz Crotto / Eliane Fisher / Sophie Gamand / Stephanie Morissette / Katerie Gladdys / Michael Heindl / Audrey Higgins / Brandon Hartley / Kelsey Kuykendall / Beth Humphrey

From pets we turn to death. Dead Dog Writhing reflects on the elegiac, sinister, and macabre realities of animal life—cycles of mortality, carnivorous instincts, and exploitation.

Alejandro Garcia’s Animal Reliquary (Polaroid Ash Series) encases the ashes of an animal within a Polaroid sleeve, transforming it into both urn and portrait. Constance Thalken’s Eyes Open Slowly #1 depicts a pinned bird carcass, suspended between science and spectacle. In the sculpture A Fly, Nina Klementina Clavijo-Telepneva invites us to meditate on the humbleness of the dead insect—at once a nuisance, a carrier of disease, and a harbinger of death.

Several artists take aim at the violent pitfalls of domestication. Paz Crotto’s visceral photograph from the axeman series of a half-eaten carcass and Eliane Fisher’s Home to Roost assemblage made of egg cartons reflect on how animals are instrumentalized for sustenance and industry. Sophie Gamand’s Good Boy, a ceramic dog collar with spikes, examines the tension between violence and care inherent in domestication.

Stephanie Morissette’s A Wake of Reapers envisions a drone devouring a bird in a future where machines replace wildlife in the skies. Katerie Gladdys’ Crane Fly – Delta 1057 captures an insect struggling against the wind generated by a departing airplane, its fragile body buffeted between flight and collapse. Michael Heindl’s Windshield Diamond series features car hood ornaments made of insects killed by passing cars, encased in shards of windshield glass gathered from crash sites.

Hunting emerges as another intersection of humans, animals, and violence. Audrey Higgins’s Trail Cam series depicts deer caught in the jarring glare of motion-sensing cameras. Brandon Hartley’s Tunnel Vision, riffing on Elmer Fudd’s endless pursuit of Bugs Bunny, and Kelsey Kuykendall’s Buck Shot!, a painting inspired by vintage hunting magazines, carry this theme forward.

The section closes with Beth Humphrey’s Horseshoe Crab Swimming Underwater—a gentle portrait of a humble yet ancient creature. Horseshoe crabs, though not farmed, are harvested from the wild and bled for their blue blood, which contains amebocytes that detect harmful bacteria. Roughly 15% die in the process, and the American horseshoe crab is now listed as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN due to biomedical use and coastal habitat loss.

**Alejandro Garcia**
*Animal Reliquary (Polaroid Ash Series)*
Polaroid infused with animal ashes
12.2" x 12.2" x 1.57"
$1,600.00

**Constance Thalken**
*Eyes Open Slowly #1*
Archival pigment print
43" x 29" x 0"
$2,200.00

**Nina Klementina Clavijo-Telepneva**
*«Fly»*
Bronze, foundry
10.24" x 15.35" x 12.99"
$6,000.00

**Paz Crotto**
*From the series "The axeman"*
Medium format film photography, 6x9
35.43" x 47.24" x 1.57"
$2,000.00

**Elaine Fisher**
*Home to Roost*
Sculpture, photograph printed on Museo Portfolio Rag
20" x 16" x 0"
$360.00

Katerie Gladdys
Crane Fly - Delta 1057

**Sophie Gamand**
*Good Boy*
Ceramic, glaze
3" x 8.5" x 8.5"
$1,200.00

**Stephanie Morissette**
*A Wake of Reapers*
Watercolor and digital manipulation
36" x 26" x 0"
$1,000.00

**Michael Heindl**
*Windshield Diamonds (Wild Bee)*
Roadkill insects, car glass, pedestals of model cars, glue
1.97" x 3.35" x 1.97"
$2,000.00

**Audrey Higgins**
*Camera #6*
Oil on panel
8" x 10" x 1"
NFS

**Michael Heindl**
*Windshield Diamonds (Butterfly)*
Roadkill insects, car glass, pedestals of model cars, glue
5" x 5" x 8"
$2,000.00

**Audrey Higgins**
*Camera #8*
Oil on panel
8" x 10" x 1"
NFS

**Michael Heindl**
*Windshield Diamonds (Dragonfly)*
Roadkill insects, car glass, pedestals of model cars, glue
2.36" x 3.15" x 1.77"
$2,000.00

**Bandon Hartley**
*Tunnel Vision*
Oil on canvas, oil pastels
16" x 20" x 0.39"
$1,500.00

**Kelsey Kuykendall**
*Buck Shot!*
Oil paint, resin, found mattress
30" x 20" x 2.5"
$6,500.00

**Beth Humphrey**
*Horseshoe Crab Swimming Underwater*
Acrylic on canvas
3" x 3.5" x 0.375"
$300.00

Slithering

Caroline Burdett / Rose Gong Monier / Adrianne Huang / Jessie Ross / Tammi Longsjo / Sol Kjok

Redemption is not guaranteed, but the artists in Slithering honor a creature both feared and revered for its cleansing power: the snake. Biblical, spiritual, and sensual—adorable to some, terrifying to others—the snake remains a potent symbol of regeneration and transformation. Works by Caroline Burdett (Smiling Faces), Rose Gong Monier (Snake Den and Serpents Twinning), Adrianne Huang (To Endure), Jessie Ross (Butterfly), Tammi Longsjo (Tending the Prickly Pear Moon), and Sol Kjok (Robes, Rags, and Silver Sashes) each pay the reptile its due reverence.

**Caroline Burdett**
*Smilling Faces*
Acrylic and wax on canvas
36" x 48" x 1.5"
$6,050.00

**Rose Gong Monier**
*Serpents Twining*
Ceramic
1" x 12" x 12"
$350.00

**Rose Gong Monier**
*Reimagined*
Ceramic
1" x 10" x 10"
$250.00

**Rose Gong Monier**
*Snake Den*
Ceramic
1" x 11" x 11"
$300.00

**Adrianne Huang**
*To Endure*
Watercolor and gouache on paper
20" x 16" x 0.1"
$5,200.00

**Tammi Longsjo**
*Tending the Prickly Pear Moon*
Acrylic, oil pastel on paper
24" x 18" x 0"
$200.00

**Jessie Ross**
*Butterfly*
Watercolor on paper
30" x 22" x 0"
$1,400.00

**Sol Kjok**
*Robes, Rags, and Silver Sashes*
Oil, acrylics and crayons on wood panel
36" x 24" x 0.75"
$6,000.00

Species Resplendent

Eduardo Baltazar / Kristy Gordon / Floris Boccanegra / Laurent Lejeune / Ivan Markovic / Carol Massa / Alice Yang

The exhibition concludes in the eternal. Species Resplendent gathers artists whose works depict animals through spiritual, mythic, or transcendental lenses.

Eduardo Baltazar’s Interior series merges ideas central to depth psychologist James Hillman with imagery that elevates the humble heron and cat into vessels of self-discovery. Kristy Gordon’s Codex of Roses envisions a sacred convergence of animal strength and divine wisdom, drawing from alchemical traditions.

Floris Boccanegra’s Making Money Off the Backs of Animals—a gold-plated plaster cast of alligator skin—oscillates between reverence and idolatry. Laurent Lejeune's Miles and Birds in the Sky bathes winged forms in rays of light that recall religious iconography alongside the enlivened spirit of jazz. Ivan Markovic’s Adrift made of handcrafted paper wings suggest angelic ascension, while Carol Massa’s drawing Rabbit Rabbit intertwines bunnies and crosses in a gesture toward Christian symbolism.

Finally, Alice Yang’s o08 Butterfly? Is a luminous painting of a butterfly hovering in a hazy landscape. Yang recalls the spiritualist painters of the 19th century, where nature’s forms become portals to the divine and remind us that animals remain mirrors, messengers, and companions in our search for meaning.