Hudson River Museum Presents Exquisite Creatures and Borinquen Gallo: Jungle Bliss
YONKERS, NY, August 18, 2026—Opening on September 18, 2026, two captivating exhibitions at the Hudson River Museum explore our complex relationship with the natural world, revealing its extraordinary beauty and fragility while examining the impact of human activity. Exquisite Creatures explores humanity’s enduring fascination with the living world through the work of artist and naturalist Christopher Marley. Borinquen Gallo: Jungle Bliss features a site-specific installation that explores the consequences of disposable consumer culture and its complex effect on the environment.
“This fall, the Hudson River Museum will present two exhibitions that are a perfect intersection of art and science,” stated Masha Turchinsky, Anita K. Hersh Director and CEO. “Together, Exquisite Creatures and Jungle Bliss speak to our strong desire to connect with the natural world on a personal level, and reflect the urgent need to protect the extraordinary diversity of life and its habitat. We’re excited to bring audiences together to activate these incredible spaces.”
Exquisite Creatures
September 18, 2026–January 31, 2027
Using animal, mineral, and plant specimens as his medium, artist and naturalist Christopher Marley creates striking three-dimensional compositions that reveal nature’s intricate beauty and diversity. Through vibrant displays of symmetry, balance, and pattern, the exhibition invites visitors to look closely and experience biophilia—our innate need to connect with nature. This is the first exhibition at the HRM that leverages our multidisciplinary nature with our partnership with Art Bridges, founded by Alice Walton, which organized and is travelling the exhibition to museums across the county.
Exquisite Creatures features more than 3,500 ethically sourced wildlife specimens, including butterflies, beetles, snakes, birds, lizards, fish, sharks, and more. All of the vertebrates that Marley uses in his work are reclaimed after dying of natural or incidental causes. He has innovated techniques for a host of organisms that are not typically considered good candidates for preservation. He also utilizes insects collected or bred in an environmentally sensitive manner that uses a worldwide network of people and institutions that share his passion for nature.
“My work was born of a desire to share nature’s majesty in a way that inspires us all,” states artist Christopher Marley. “I believe that in the proper light, beauty is found in every organism and that the deeper our appreciation for the aesthetics of nature, the more eager we are to immerse ourselves in it and conserve it.”
Christopher Marley is an artist, naturalist, photographer, and author who uses preserved natural specimens as his medium. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest, immersed in nature from his earliest memories. During a decade spent traveling the world as a fashion model, Marley’s passion for discovering unfamiliar elements in the natural world became an obsession.
Support for the exhibition is generously provided by Art Bridges.
Support provided by New York State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, President Pro Tempore and Majority Leader.
Exhibitions are made possible in part by assistance provided by the County of Westchester and the City of Yonkers.
Borinquen Gallo: Jungle Bliss
September 18, 2026–March 14, 2027
Interdisciplinary artist Borinquen Gallo will transform the Hudson River Museum’s Community and Partnership Gallery into a lush, site-specific installation that explores the consequences of disposable consumer culture and its complex effect on the environment. Gallo, with help from the public, will create an immersive artwork from familiar discarded materials—including netting, caution tape, and plastic bags—into dense, textural weavings. The installation will also include animated projections of butterflies and jungle critters that expand visually onto the surrounding gallery walls.
Jungle Bliss functions as a powerful visual metaphor, examining the tensions between nature and artifice, permanence and transience, and individual responsibility and collective action. In the Hudson Valley, invasive species are spreading unchecked and reshaping local forests into dense, jungle-like landscapes; microplastics are polluting local waterways; and real estate development is fragmenting natural habitats into concrete jungles. Through the use of materials and community involvement, the installation draws attention to pressing environmental threats and advocates for the stewardship and preservation of Hudson Valley’s ecosystems.
“Weaving alone allows me to slow down and hear myself think, while weaving collectively allows me to connect to others, foster community, and carve out a space for dialogue,” states Gallo. “By transforming waste into a collective act of creation, participants become active contributors to an artwork that imagines repair as both an ecological and a social practice. Jungle Bliss ultimately invites us to reconsider our relationship to the materials we discard, the environments we inhabit, and one another, reminding us that caring for our forests also means strengthening the social fabric of the communities that sustain them.”
Borinquen Gallo is an Italian–Puerto Rican contemporary artist whose work delves into themes of beauty, community, and socio-cultural systems and structures through sculpture and installations made using a range of repurposed materials. She received her BFA in painting and sculpture from Cooper Union, and her MFA in painting from Hunter College. Gallo is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute in New York.
Support for the exhibition is generously provided by Art Bridges.
Additional support is provided by Sound Associates and Material for the Arts.
The animated projections were developed in collaboration with Optical Animal, a creative video design studio based in Brooklyn.
Exhibitions are made possible in part by assistance provided by the County of Westchester and the City of Yonkers.
See the Artist at Work
Between August 19 and September 2, Gallo invites the public to witness and participate in her process firsthand, learn about her practice, and even contribute to the evolving exhibition at the HRM at Artist at Work: Borinquen Gallo. By inviting participants to build alongside the artist, Jungle Bliss fosters reflection on our relationship to waste, the fragility of local ecosystems, and the need to care for both the natural and social fabric of our environment.
Teaching Artist-in-Residence
As the HRM’s Fall 2026 Teaching Artist-in-Residence, Borinquen Gallo will be presenting experiences for the public that express and amplify the shared thematic content of Exquisite Creatures and Jungle Bliss. Join her in a community waterfront cleanup with environmental organization Friends of Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park on Saturday, October 3rd, 10am–12pm. Then, co-create with the artist at two hands-on workshops in weaving elements to be incorporated into the installation on Saturday, November 7 and Saturday, December 5, 2–4pm. And, finally, learn about her art, practice, career trajectory, and holistic philosophy at an artist talk on Saturday, January 30, 2pm.
Related Programs
Exquisite Creatures of the Sky
Saturday, September 19, 3pm
Marvel at a live, outdoor demonstration featuring trained birds of prey, led by professional falconer Brian Bradley. This dynamic and engaging program introduces audiences to the biology, behavior, and ecological significance of skyhunters, including some of nature’s most elusive and mythologized predators. Presented in conjunction with Exquisite Creatures.
Exquisite Patterns: Meditation Under the Dome
Saturdays and Sundays, October 3, 4, November 7, 8, December 5, 6, and January 2, 3, 10am
Let the stress of the week melt away under the stars in the HRM Planetarium. Our wellness series blends immersive abstract imagery and views of the cosmos with guided meditation, creating a one-of-a-kind space to breathe, unwind, and reconnect. On the first Saturday and Sunday morning of each month, you’ll get to experience the Museum before we open to the public. Exquisite Patterns is an interdisciplinary program inspired by the symmetries, colors, and biological intricacy on display in the exhibit Exquisite Creatures.
Conversation with Christopher Marley and Gallery Tour
Saturday, October 10, 3pm
Hear directly from artist and naturalist Christopher Marley, the creator behind Exquisite Creatures, through a live virtual conversation with Laura Vookles, Chair of the Curatorial Department, followed by an in-person guided tour of the exhibition.
Stamped with Nature: Pattern and Print Workshop
Sunday, October 18, 1:30–3:30pm
A hands-on printing workshop led by New York-based artist Ebony Bolt, invites you to create bold, repeating patterns inspired by both urban life and the natural world. Drawing on Bolt’s mixed-media practice and her work Botanical Dreams in the Concrete Jungle, explore how observation and pattern can transform everyday experiences into vibrant visual design.
Halloweekend “Creatures’ Features”
Saturday, October 31, 11am–5pm
You’re invited to explore the themes of Exquisite Creatures through hands-on activities, art making, and a chance to see live reptiles and insects in action on Halloween! Plus, enjoy guided tours of the exhibition for families, themed planetarium shows, and a costume parade through the galleries. Come dressed as your favorite creature and leave with a creepy crawly (trick or) treat!
Exquisite Mosaics: Creature Creation!
Sunday, November 15, 1–4pm
Learn how to translate the vibrant colors, patterns, and compositions of Exquisite Creatures into contemporary mosaic art. Led by mosaic artist Kristin Javier, explore the exhibition as a source of inspiration and reinterpret natural forms through the historic medium of Byzantine mosaic. Create your own small format artwork using pre-cut tesserae of stone, glass, and reclaimed materials and bring it home. This three-hour hands-on workshop is for adults and teens (ages 12+). Capacity is limited. Advance registration is recommended.
Love Motel for Insects: Art, Science, and Arthropods
Saturday, November 21, 3pm
Artist, biologist, and environmental educator Brandon Ballengée will join virtually from his studio at Atelier de la Nature, a STEAM education center and nature reserve in Arnaudville, Louisiana, for a conversation with Marc Taylor, HRM’s Senior Manager of Planetarium and Science Programs. Afterwards, Taylor will lead visitors through the exhibition, helping to connect the specimens on view to the ecological concepts and insect diversity explored through Ballengée’s Love Motel project.
Songs of Wings and Wonders: Gallery Performance and Songwriting
Saturday, November 28, 2pm
The HRM’s annual Holiday Kickoff Weekend features Hudson Valley musician and educator Jim Keyes leading an interactive, family-friendly program that combines live musical performance and collaborative songwriting to explore the themes of Exquisite Creatures.
Empire Wild Concert
Sunday, December 6, 3pm
Empire Wild, a genre-bending ensemble of Juilliard-trained cellists, will perform a concert that explores musical frontiers and pushes their instruments to the limit. Inspired by Exquisite Creatures, this performance in the galleries explores how artists across disciplines—from naturalists to composers—have drawn inspiration from the animal world to understand beauty, emotion, and the human experience.
Painting with Nature with Patricia Miranda
Sunday, January 10, 2027, 1–4pm
Artist, educator, and curator Patricia Miranda leads a painting workshop in which you’ll explore the origins of color. Create your own paint by extracting natural dyes from materials such as minerals, insects, and plants. Inspired by the vibrant forms and hues of Exquisite Creatures, the workshop connects artistic practice with scientific inquiry, investigating how pigments are derived from the natural world.
Habitats, Hutches, and Healing
Saturday, January 23, 2027, 1:30–3:30pm
You’re invited to actively engage in environmental stewardship by building a functional outdoor butterfly hutch designed to support species such as Monarchs, Red Admirals, and Tiger Swallowtails. This workshop is inspired by the themes in Exquisite Creatures—biodiversity, interdependence, and care for the natural world—applying them to practical, community-based action.
Press contact:
Jeana Wunderlich
jwunderlich@hrm.org
(914) 963-4550 x240
Samantha Hoover
shoover@hrm.org
(914) 963-4550 x216
Images: Christopher Marley (American, b. 1969). Cerulean Genesis, 2015. Butterflies. Art Bridges. Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
###
About the Hudson River Museum
The Hudson River Museum is a preeminent, award-winning cultural institution in Westchester County and the New York metropolitan area. Situated on the banks of the Hudson River in Yonkers, New York, the Museum has a mission to engage, inspire, and connect diverse communities through the power of the arts, sciences, and history.
The HRM offers engaging experiences for every age and interest, with an ever-evolving collection of American art and dynamic exhibitions that range from nineteenth-century paintings to contemporary art installations. The campus, which recently expanded to include a West Wing with stunning exhibition galleries and sweeping views of the Hudson River, features Glenview, an 1877 house on the National Register of Historic Places; a state-of-the-art planetarium; an environmental teaching gallery; and an outdoor amphitheater. The Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting its multidisciplinary offerings, which are complemented by an array of public and educational programs that encourage creative expression, collaboration, and artistic and scientific discovery. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM), an honor awarded to only 3% of museums nationwide.
Museum Hours: The Hudson River Museum is open to the public Wednesday–Friday, from 12–5pm, and Saturday–Sunday, from 11am–5pm. On Free First Fridays, the Museum is open and free of charge on the first Friday of the month, from 5–8pm. The Museum is accessible by Metro-North (Hudson Line—Yonkers and Glenview stations), by Bee-Line Bus Route #1, by car, and by bike.
General Admission: Adults $15; Youth (3–18) $8; Seniors (65+) $9; Students (with valid ID) $9; Veterans $9; Children (under 3) FREE; Members FREE; Museums for All* $2, *SNAP/EBT card with photo ID (up to 4 people). Free general admission for all Westchester County high school students on Saturdays and Sundays. Planetarium Tickets: Adults $8; Youth (3–18) $6; Seniors (65+) $7; Students (with valid ID) $7; Veterans $7; Children (under 3) Free. Glenview Tours: Adults $8; Youth (3–18) $6; Seniors (65+) $7; Students (with valid ID) $7; Veterans $7; Children (under 3) Free.
