KENNESAW, Ga. | Oct 1, 2025

Together, these exhibitions reflect the Zuckerman Museum of Art’s mission to showcase significant works from the University’s permanent collection, present nationally recognized contemporary artists and serve as a center for education and professional development.

 The Zuckerman Museum of Art, part of Kennesaw State University’s School of Art and Design, opened its fall season with two exhibitions that engage visitors in powerful conversations at the intersection of art, science and the natural world. Running August 26 through December 5, Lady Bug by Jennifer Angus and The Naturalist by Tricia Wright present distinct yet complementary visions that reframe our relationship with nature through contemporary artistic practice.
 
“What I find so compelling about these exhibitions is the artistry itself; the meticulous detail, the use of unexpected materials and the poetry embedded in the work,” said Cynthia Nourse Thompson, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Professor of Art. “They invite us to slow down, to marvel and to recognize that art has the ability to open doors to wonder and reflection. Whether through Jennifer Angus’s breathtaking patterns or Tricia Wright’s poetic use of gilding imagery with gold leaf, their works reveal how beauty and imagination can shift the way we see our world.”
 
Jennifer Angus: Lady Bug

Internationally recognized installation artist Jennifer Angus transforms the Don Russell Clayton Gallery with Lady Bug, a large-scale work celebrating pioneering women in entomology. Figures such as Cynthia Longfield, Alice Balfour and Margaret Collins (dubbed “Madame Dragonfly,” “Moth Queen” and “Termite Lady,” respectively) are honored through Angus’s intricate use of insects as her primary medium. Drawing on her background in textile design, Angus arranges insects in ornate, wallpaper-like patterns that both dazzle and unsettle. From a distance, the designs suggest domestic familiarity; up close, they reveal thousands of shimmering wings and bodies, challenging viewers to reconsider their assumptions about insects.

“Insects are ground zero for human survival,” Angus notes, emphasizing that their role in ecosystems is as essential as clean air and water. By confronting viewers with their beauty and fragility, she advocates for greater awareness of environmental threats such as climate change and colony collapse. Her work underscores that small individual actions can collectively make a global impact.

[Photos by Alanna Foxwell, taken at the opening of "Lady Bug," a large-scale installation by Artist Jennifer Angus, pictured in the far right, speaking with students about her creative process.]

Tricia Wright: The Naturalist

In the Malinda Jolley Mortin Gallery, artist Tricia Wright reflects on memory, belonging and humanity’s enduring relationship with the natural world. The Naturalist showcases two major bodies of work created in collaboration with Dieu Donné: the Raptures series and Bogland Variations. Through handmade paper embedded with organic materials, debossed texts and poetic references, Wright examines the passing of time and the shifting landscapes of memory. Raised in England and now based in the U.S., she brings a transatlantic perspective shaped by migration and the duality of belonging and not belonging.
 
Her large diptych The Naturalist references Seamus Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist and Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Pied Beauty, pairing the curiosity of childhood encounters with nature with meditations on beauty and selfhood. In Bogland Variations, book-like forms embedded with natural materials embody the tactile, personal experience of place and time.
 
A Space for Inquiry and Engagement

Together, these exhibitions reflect the Zuckerman Museum of Art’s mission to showcase significant works from the University’s permanent collection, present nationally recognized contemporary artists and serve as a center for education and professional development. Both Angus and Wright demonstrate how art can bring new perspectives to the scientific and natural worlds, inviting audiences into dialogue that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply personal.

The exhibitions are on view from August 26 through December 5. Admission is free and open to the public.

Please visit the museum website for more information about visiting.

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