WAUSAU, Wisc. – Artwork created by 118 artists from throughout the world will be included in the 47th annual Birds in Art exhibition, on view Saturday, September 10 through Sunday, November 27 at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin.
With more artwork from farther afield, Birds in Art 2022 is replete with birds strutting, vocalizing, socializing, preening and soaring. This year, 570 artists – a 12 percent increase above the 2021 total – submitted 946 artworks for consideration by the three-person jury.
Of the 118 artists, 95 were selected in addition to 23 who were named Master Artists during previous Birds in Art exhibitions. A total of 33 are international, representing 15 different countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Elwin van der Kolk, ‘Snowbuntings,’ 2022, acrylic on board
Eleven are Wisconsin artists, three of whom also are among 18 first-time Birds in Art artists.
First-year Birds in Art artist Alejandro Grajal said that as the CEO of Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, he has traveled the world as an ornithologist and conservationist and remains “entranced by the wondrous beauty of birds.” The incongruity of a kingfisher intently looking for unsuspecting prey as it perched on a fish sculpture caught Grajal’s eye and inspired his painting.
In addition to paintings in watercolor, oil and acrylic; sculptures in stone, wood, wire, aluminum and bronze; and drawings in graphite, pastel, chalk and charcoal, the exhibition includes various mediums from cut paper and scratchboard to serigraphy, woodcut, linocut and etching. Textile art is included from two first-time artists: Jim Hay, from Japan, who incorporated machine-sewn kimono fabric into his whimsical work, and Canadian Sue Sherman, whose quilt depicts three monk parakeets.
Artworks by previously named Master Artists include Robert Bateman’s painting of a robin’s nest at his childhood home and Anne Senechal Faust’s timberdoodle serigraph.
An illustrated Birds in Art catalog, featuring every artwork along with artists’ statements in a newly redesigned format, will be available in September.
For more information, visit www.lywam.org; e-mail the museum at info@lywam.org; or call 715-845-7010.
