The McNay invites visitors to step inside Sandy Skoglund’s visionary worlds in fall exhibition

‘Enchanting Nature’ explores the conflict between manmade environments and nature in vibrant and surprising presentation

SAN ANTONIO – Reality or dream? Visitors to “Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature” may ask themselves this question as they experience the artist’s hauntingly familiar, yet strange and new environments. The exhibition, presented at the McNay Art Museum Sept. 11, 2025-Feb. 1, 2026, expands on the breadth of Skoglund’s artistic practice as a sculptor, installation artist and photographer.

Merging a variety of mediums, Skoglund (American, b. 1946) creates tableaux constructed with unconventional materials. She then photographs the detailed installations, incorporating live models within swarms of fabricated objects or sculpted animals — from black squirrels and falling blue leaves to neon green cats.

“Sandy Skoglund’s powerful environments bring together everyday objects, vibrant color and animal imagery. ‘Enchanting Nature’ presents a conceptually and physically complex collection of works that blur the boundary between illusion and reality,” said Matthew McLendon, Ph.D., the McNay’s director and CEO. “The McNay Art Museum is committed to presenting the work of artists like Sandy Skoglund, who encourage us to think broadly, dream deeply and bravely question social and cultural norms.”

Skoglund’s work is centered on the conflict between the manmade world and the natural environment and the resulting paradoxes created by the ongoing dualities of contemporary life. She uses lush, super-saturated colors and compelling forms to punctuate her distinctive dreamlike images that invite the viewer into a world of psychological suspense.

“Sandy Skoglund creates a dialog that exists in a sort of visual turmoil, her compositions evoking both a sense of urgency and familiarity,” said René Paul Barilleaux, the McNay’s head of curatorial affairs. “‘Enchanting Nature’ invites visitors to experience the chaos and energy that is brought to life as the artist captures the eternal clash of culture and nature.”

“Enchanting Nature” will feature “Radioactive Cats,” Skoglund’s first installation that combines her handmade sculptures, live models and photography. Similar themes of serialism, repetition and similarity can be seen in “Revenge of the Goldfish,” a room-sized installation that includes more than 100 individually handmade ceramic goldfish. The two projects are considered among the most defining images of the staged photography movement of the 1980s and 1990s.

The exhibition will also present the never-before-exhibited 2008 installation “Fresh Hybrid” and showcase work from throughout the artist’s career, emphasizing ongoing themes of nature, the environment and interspecies kinship. For the first time, Skoglund will create monumental photographic enlargements drawn from details of her iconic photographs. This new approach to subvert the “photographic rectangle” encourages visitors to experience the entirety of each image through individual sculptures, objects and images taken from installations and room-sized environments that envelope the viewer.

“We enchant the world around us because we inhabit it,” remarked Skoglund. “Reality is a dream we wake up to every day.”

Skoglund’s recent series, “The Outtakes,” was inspired by a discovery the artist made while reorganizing her studio during the Covid-19 pandemic. She came across piles of Kodak film boxes with rejected images inside she hadn’t seen for decades and was jarred by surprise while viewing them. The series revisits prior photoshoots to recover alternative shots originally dismissed as mistakes, providing new perspective to the artist’s past work.

“Outtakes are the path not taken, whether in life or art,” said Skoglund. “Whether an awkward glance of the model, or the slight movement of the camera frame in the wrong direction, certain images felt invigorating, intriguing, renewing. These discarded moments needed to be remembered, so I decided to print them in admiration for their beautiful mistakes.”

Skoglund has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally and her work is in permanent collections worldwide, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Centre Pompidou in Paris; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She is a recipient of the Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Visual Arts for Hartford Art School, the Trustees Award for Excellence from Rutgers University, the New York Foundation for the Arts individual grant and the National Endowment for the Arts individual grant. Skoglund currently lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“‘Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature’ is deeply influenced by the intersection of culture and nature, two themes we also find intertwined in the character of our vibrant city. Bank of America is pleased to support the McNay, our decades-long partner, in bringing Sandy Skoglund’s work to San Antonio, offering an immersive, intriguing and ambitious experience that challenges our perspectives,” said Ventura Perez III, president, Bank of America San Antonio.

“Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature” will be accompanied by a 64-page full color publication of the same name, published by Damiani Books in collaboration with McNay Art Museum and Paci Contemporary Gallery. The book includes an interview with Skoglund by Laura van Straaten, who writes frequently for The New York Times, W Magazine, Town & Country and is a former contributing editor and writer for many of the top art publications and sites in the U.S. and abroad.

“Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature” is organized by René Paul Barilleaux, the McNay’s head of curatorial affairs with Sandy Skoglund. Presenting sponsorship is most generously provided by Bank of America. Lead funding is provided by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992.

Images available upon request.

Media Contacts:
Yolanda Urrabazo
Head of Communications and Marketing, McNay Art Museum
yolanda.urrabazo@mcnayart.org

Betsy Meacham, Blue Water Communications
800-975-3212
betsy@bluewatercommunications.biz

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About McNay Art Museum
The McNay Art Museum engages a diverse community in the discovery and enjoyment of the visual arts. Built in the 1920s by artist and educator Marion Koogler McNay, the Spanish Colonial Revival residence became the site of Texas’ first modern art museum when it opened in 1954. Today, 200,000 visitors a year enjoy works by modern masters including Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Joan Mitchell, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The 45,000-square-foot Jane & Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, designed by internationally renowned French architect Jean-Paul Viguier, features major exhibitions annually. The 25 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds include sculptures by Willie Cole, Robert Indiana, Luis A. Jiménez Jr., Alejandro Martín, George Rickey, Joel Shapiro, Kiki Smith, Tom Wesselmann and others.

For more information about the McNay, visit www.mcnayart.org.

The McNay is open Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from Noon to 5 p.m.