Wild

Wayne Paige

Curated by Adah Rose Bitterbaum

Wednesday, January 29th through Saturday, February 22nd, 2025

Animal Kingdom was a pet shop a short walk from where I lived as a child in the Logan Square section of Chicago. At the time, it provided a wealth of insight to an eight-year-old who enjoyed drawing real and imaginary animals. Initially, it opened as a conventional pet shop selling puppies, kittens, and tropical fish. Over several years, the shop expanded, and more non-traditional and exotic animals were added—Monkeys, tigers, bats, and exotic birds joined Dogs, cats, and goldfish. During this period, they were confined to cages and other restricted forms of captivity. This eventually ended with an outcry from an enlightened public. Nevertheless, I imagined them in the wild, uncaged, untamed, and drew them as such. Since 1998, under skies of imaginary comets and binary numbers, my drawings included mountains, waterways, and woodlands populated by bipedal beings engaged in multiple activities. Dragonflies appeared briefly and then exited during an interim between 2010 and 2011, embodying the natural state of our world’s creatures as unrestrained, wild, and free. Now, after a seventy-plus-year hiatus and unforeseen events, the animals of my youth have returned. They, along with spiritual entities, have taken over the landscape, diminishing the impact of the bipedal beings. Squirrels, bears, and a host of other creatures have taken over. By tapping into my childhood memory, the content of my work has expanded and remained consistent with the overall focus of my previous work, which is creating art that embraces conflict, dreams, and humor. All takes place under a moonlit sky and in the “Wild.”