Framing Nature: Animals through Art

January 24, 2026 – December 19, 2026

Reception: February 26, 2026

This exhibition examines the varied representations of animals in selections from the permanent collection of the Wichita Falls Museum of Art. Bringing together American and European art from the eighteenth century to the present, Framing Nature: Animals through Art invites us to consider different ways animals have historically been portrayed in the visual arts, what these images say about attitudes towards the natural world, and how art helps shape our ways of thinking about the beasts and creatures we study, hunt, admire, fear, and adore. 

Encouraging explorations of the meaning and purpose of diverse animal portrayals, with styles ranging from the naturalistic to the abstract, Framing Nature presents collection highlights, works rarely exhibited, and some shown for the first time. These include works by American artists including Martin Johnson Heade, Albert Bierstadt, and Roy Lichtenstein, among others.

The exhibition also raises broader questions of our relationship to animals and the environment today. How do we conceive of our relationship to nature, and how do we treat our fellow inhabitants of the earth?  How should we conceive of our relationship to nature? And how different are humans and non-human animals, after all?

This exhibition is co-curated by Dr. Kirsten Lodge, Professor of Humanities and English and the Coordinator of the Humanities Program.

Image:

Paul Pletka, Daybreak People, 1991, Lithograph; Museum purchase, 1992.