Anatomy Lessons by Michele Beevors

A breathtaking exhibition of sad splendour is coming to the National Wool Museum this winter

Featuring meticulously-sculpted, life sized skeletons, making visitors question their place in this web of the living and the dead. From the towering giraffe stretching 4.4 metres in height, to the army of over 50 delicately rendered frogs, this exhibition is enthralling in scale. The stories from Anatomy Lessons have stunned and delighted audiences across the globe.

Each sculpture tells a story - one of the collection of animals by museums and collectors, of Western safari hunters, of human encroachment, and of the often sad role of the animals in our lives. These underlying concepts are explored and reflected by the materials used. Wool, that speaks of warmth, of comfort, of care, meets the size, grace, and sheer breathtaking beauty of the pieces, clashing with the hard and complex stories beneath.

Originally from Australia, Beevors has been practicing in New Zealand for the last 20 years. She is Head of Sculpture at Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand’s oldest, and one of its most prestigious, art schools. Beevors has exhibited in a number of galleries, museums and exhibition spaces in New Zealand, Australia and Vienna with art that is defiant, unconventional, and moving.