Animalia

Animalia
Exhibition Dates: October 26 – December 15, 2024
Isabella Kirkland, Juror

There are over 1.5 million known species of animals, including humans. New species continue to be discovered, while present species evolve and sometimes disappear.  Animalia is a juried exhibition that showcases artists’ representations of the animal world, including the place of the human species and human activity within the larger animal universe.

Juror

Isabella Kirkland (1954-) is an American visual artist and biodiversity researcher. She is known for intricate, representational paintings that straddle art history, natural science and ecological activism. Since the mid-1990s, she has documented biota in series focused on species that are extinct, disappearing, collected or illegally trafficked, or emerging from near-extinction. Her work fuses the classical naturalist tradition of wildlife painters like John James Audubon and the precise rendering style and time-tested oil techniques of 17th-century Dutch Master still life painters. Situated in the contemporary context of global warming, however, her paintings subtly upend such idealized traditions, invoking a sense of accountability in response to the specter of ecological flux and impermanence.

Kirkland studied at Guilford College, Virginia Commonwealth University, and finally at the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1970’s. Her work is in major museum collections throughout the United States. She spent 10 years with Feature Inc in New York City and is now represented by Todd Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco, CA. She is a Research Associate of the California Academy of Sciences. She currently lives and works in the waterfront area of Sausalito, CA.
GALLERY LOCATION
1 Commandant’s Lane, Benicia, CA 94510

GALLERY HOURS
Thursday – Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 pm, during exhibitions. The gallery is closed between exhibitions.