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Emi Slade is a Michigan-based artist who creates beautifully grotesque hybrids made from taxidermied animal parts* and surrealist sculptural elements. Part nightmare, part fairy tale, Slade’s creations terrify and ignite the imagination with their gleaming eyes, spilled viscera, and rows of razor-sharp teeth. Among her twisted menagerie is a Cereberus, an Arctic Merfox, and a conjoined Jackalope, all of which seize the viewer’s attention with their lifelike ferocity.

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MONICA COOK

Whether she’s working with paint, photography, or sculpture, the art of Monica Cookgravitates around a central theme: the beauty and ugliness of flesh. The image above is a still from her 2011 short animation “Volley,” which takes us into the magical cave of two arctic monkeys. The glistening fur and skin of the female ape is contrasted with her wart-like growths, and when she gives birth, her abdomen splits open and pours out the fetus in a stream of gelatinous marbles. At one point, her dog (whose skin is likewise rotting and mottled) is seen disemboweling the male. Birth is likened to death, and the apes’ bodies disturbingly remind of us of our own.

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KATE CLARK

Traditional taxidermy often reasserts the boundaries between humans and animals: “I am a human, this is my trophy-object.” Brooklyn-based artist Kate Clark, however, explores rogue taxidermy as a way to break down our ideas about species categories. Using recycled animal hides that are considered too “imperfect” to mount, she turns them into sculptures with human faces. The steady gazes produce empathy in the viewer, confronting us with the truth that we are all just animals wandering around on the face of the earth.

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ENRIQUE GOMEZ DE MOLINA

Joy and despair blend together in Enrique Gomez de Molina’s colorful chimeras. The artist feels happiness when creating creatures of mythical power and beauty, but saddened about the loss, sacrifice, and destruction that permeates life. Gomez de Molina is somewhat infamous; he spent 20 months in jail for trafficking endangered wildlife. He pled guilty, but claimed his intentions were ultimately good, as he sought to bring awareness to threatened species.

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ODDITY AVENUE

Oddity Avenue began his work when a Victorian taxidermy piece was nearly thrown away due to having a missing eye and broken leg. Inspired, the artist began acquiring taxidermy objects from auctions, family members, and friends, incorporating the different specimens into curio sculptures. Among his creations are mythological creatures and animal-headed wooden dolls.

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POLLY MORGAN

Once a student of English Literature, Polly Morgan began her taxidermy work in 2004. Her literary background may seem unusual given her current line of work—that is, until you see the amount of story and symbolism she packs into her work. Like actors in a grotesque theatre, dead birds lay splayed out in bell jars, or cram together in ice cream scoops and telephones. Morgan has a knack for the visceral and strange.

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JULIA DEVILLE

Julia deVille works with taxidermy (in addition to silversmithing) as a means of exploring and uncovering death. For her, taxidermy is a means of respecting and appreciating all life—both human and non-human. Similar to Schieferstein, she hybridizes deceased animals with fashion objects, mounting them in creative ways that recall their lives in emotional ways.

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SARINA BREWER

Sarina Brewer is an artist and naturalist who has long been fascinated by animals, mythology, and funerary rituals. Rooting her work in her knowledge of biology and appreciation for the bizarre, Brewer sculpts fantasy creatures and carnival curiosities. She also practices “esodermy,” which is the preservation of animal body parts that are typically discarded in the taxidermy process.

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JAMES PROSEK

The mystical creations of James Prosek are sensitive works of art, often mixed with a sense of peace and mourning. The plant imagery connects the animals to the environments in which they once participated. Prosek’s paintings also explore his background as a conservationist, depicting realistic, field-guide-style profiles of animals.

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In Head On, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang arranged 99 wolves leaping through the air, charging in a levitating arch into a glass wall. That’s a costly metaphor.

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Iris Schieferstein‘s

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Géza Szöllősi

Geza is a very skilled multi disciplinary artist working in a wide variety of mediums but some of his art work can be very disturbing and  sexually graphic. he has been featured in multiple Hungarian films.  

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