Tag: taxidermy

Kate Clark at 542 West 24th Street

Recent high-profile court cases have argued for basic human rights to be applied to animals while at the same time, many people exist with a remarkable remove from nature.  Kate Clark’s skillfully rendered hybrid human/animal characters question the nature of the relationship between humans and animals by existing as both and neither.  Confronting audiences with preternatural calm, Clark’s figures suggest an otherworldly intelligence and recall wise fictional characters from the worlds of entertainment and mythology.  (On view at 542 West 24th Street through Sept 28th).

Kate Clark, Twins, pronghorn hide and horns, blesbok antelope hide and horns, foam, clay, thread, pins, rubber eyes, H 34” x W 27” x D12”, 2021.

Bruce Nauman at Gagosian Gallery

Seventeen taxidermy molds of foxes, deer and caribou by iconic conceptual artist Bruce Nauman are poised like an acrobatic troupe but are more creepy than entertaining. Nauman ups the discomfort by keeping them hairless to suggest that they’ve experienced an unnamed brutality. (At Gagosian Gallery’s 821 Park Ave location through Feb 21st).

Bruce Nauman, Animal Pyramid, polyurethane foam, iron, wood, and wire, 144 x 84 x 96 inches, 1989.

Radcliffe Bailey at Jack Shainman Gallery

Known for using evocative materials to create sculptural mediations on the African diaspora, Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey has upped the ante in his recent exhibition at Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery, where he’s exhibiting this startling taxidermied croc who appears to climb his way past memorial-like markers with dates and initials.  (At Jack Shainman’s 24th Street location through Feb 15th).  

Radcliffe Bailey, On Your Way Up, tarp, crocodile and steel, 120 x 106 x 10 inches, 2013.