Circle of Animal

Credit: Sharon K. Schafer/Nevada Humanities

Circle of Animal 
By Sharon K. Schafer, Artist and Naturalist

October 3 – November 26, 2024
Nevada Humanities Program Gallery
1017 S. 1st Street, #190, Las Vegas

Reception and Artist’s Talk
Thursday, October 3, 2024, 5 – 8 pm, Talk 6 pm PT 
Nevada Humanities Program Gallery

Nevada Humanities presents Circle of Animal, an exhibition by artist and naturalist Sharon K Schafer. Circle of Animal is a series of black and white images that are messages from the edge, warnings of our growing estrangement from the world and the desperate need to recognize and accept our place in nature. These photographs are a reminder that humanity’s deepest fear is not that we are separate from nature, but rather, that we are a part of it.

We are estranged from nature, possessed by an inability to connect, communicate and empathize with the more-than-human world. We stand apart, a drifting coiled thread turned in on itself, having lost connection to the fabric of our animate earth. Our species’ cleverness seduces us into believing we possess a certain specialness and destiny that secures our independence from the reciprocal nature of our world. This false sense of separation allows us to deceive ourselves into believing we have the power and right to claim dominion and to satisfy our every hunger.

Circle of Animal is on display at the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery, 1017 South 1st Street, #190 in Las Vegas, from October 3 through November 26, 2024. This exhibition is presented by Nevada Humanities and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is supported in part by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the state of Nevada.