Among the Beasts: Wild, Tamed & Imagined

October 31, 2026 - January 31, 2027

Among the Beasts explores the many roles that animals have played in artistic expression for millennia. Through diverse media, artists depict animals as subjects of labor and companionship, symbols of the natural world, and figures of imagination that blur the boundaries between reality and myth. Organized into three thematic sections—domesticated, wild, and fantastical—the exhibition traces how cultural values, environmental perspectives, and storytelling traditions shape these representations.

Alva Dorn, Me-ow, 1960, gelatin silver print. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Gift of A. L. Dorn, 1962/3.502.

Emma Lewis Mitchell, Bowl, 2000, ceramic. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Gift of friends in memory of Colleen Duncan, 2000.43.

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Flying Dove, 1952, lithograph. Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Gift of Suzanne U. DeLano Parish in memory of her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Upjohn Dalton, 1983/4.27.