Buffalo, NY – Beginning Saturday, March 11, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will open a new exhibition, Menagerie: Animals on View, featuring creatures—furred and feathered—as agents of storytelling, humorous personifications, and echoes of the human spirit. The exhibition will remain on view until June 4.

On Sunday, March 12, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will present Five Dollar Family Funday in conjunction with Menagerie: Animals on View, featuring $5 museum admission for the entire family and programming for both children and adults. It will continue on the second Sunday of every month. For more information please visit www.albrightknox.org/familyday.

Over time, animals have emerged as an established artistic motif. The gestural images of horses made tens of thousands of years ago on the walls of caves in Lascaux, France, are some of the earliest forms of visual expression. In the mid–eighteenth century, animals became a prominent theme in painting and sculpture.

What is it about this particular topic that artists find so compelling? Animals are a source of companionship, comfort, and food, but perhaps it is the way they also emulate our emotions that offers a unique entry point for the viewer. While such imagery may tug at our heartstrings, it simultaneously points toward a bond that exceeds spoken, painted, or sculpted representation. This exhibition explores the ways in which this vast subject has evolved into a mirror of the most intimate aspects of the psyche but dually serves as a reflection of the social and political environment. Creatures, great and small, prompt us to consider the dynamics of dominance, oppression, and exclusion as parallels of human society. 

Assembled from the Albright-Knox’s expansive collection, the exhibition will bring together more than fifty paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and videos. Featured artists include Kai Althoff (German, born 1966), Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921–2006), Milton Avery (American, 1885–1965), Francis Bacon (British, born Ireland, 1909–1992), Giacomo Balla (Italian, 1871–1958), William Holbrook Beard (American, 1824–1900), Grace Hartigan (American, 1922–2008), Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), Bruce Nauman (American, born 1941), Kiki Smith (American, born 1954), and William Wegman (American, born 1943), among others.

This is the final exhibition in a series of collection-based installations that consider the trajectory of traditionally defined genres in art and the ways in which they continue to flourish while often being challenged and transformed.

This exhibition is organized by Godin-Spaulding Curator & Curator for the Collection Holly E. Hughes. Equipment and technical support for the exhibition have been provided by Advantage TI.

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