Eight Endangered Species

February 4, 2012 - March 25, 2012

Contemporary artist Kay Jackson portrays Eight Endangered Species using ancient techniques and creative variations on traditional frames. Since the 1990s, Kay Jackson has been quietly paying her respects to disappearing flora and fauna by making icons, one for every species. Their meticulously worked surfaces and gilt carved frames recall the sacred relics of early art. Her works evoke the irony of our readiness to lament environmental damage and our inaction to prevent.

Each of the Endangered Species panels, now more than thirty five in all, requires months to produce. Their delicately incised and gilt surfaces are layered and worked with techniques long out of common use. Jackson deliberately employs craftsmanship skills that have practically disappeared in order to pay homage to living creatures that are disappearing. The eight threatened species in the Muscarelle installation are the Figian Banded Iguana, American Buffalo, Crayfish, Grévy’s Zebra (illustrated), Salmon, Sea Horse, Red Crown Crane, and Spotted Owl. The works will be installed in a darkened gallery in order to display the reflective luminosity of the gilt surfaces.