Contributed by Helen Kauder / A friend once confided that he adopted a dog just so he could pick up dates while walking in the park. I was reminded of this while viewing “Deus Ex-Bark-ina,” the flirtatious dog-themed exhibition that just opened at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art in New Haven. Romance and animal attraction is everywhere. Curated by painter Michael Morgan and featuring the work of over 55 contemporary artists, this eclectic and jam-packed show is a potent salve for this atomized and polarized time, affording us a moment to share our deep affective bonds with the canine family. The artists reject simplistic notions of the dog as obedient instrument or intuitive hero, imbuing the animal with agency, magnetism, and mystery. We come to appreciate dogs as primal and sensual beings, and, through works in paint, mixed media, video, and sculpture, see them in exposed, autonomous, and emotional states.
The exhibition is organized thematically. Among many engaging groupings are regal, elegant dogs (Pierce Kinally, Sophie Larrimore); dogs unleashed; memento mori and the macabre (HyunJin Park, Alessandra Exposito); and pup play, kink, and BDSM (Juan Hinojosa’s collage diptych, and Stephen Morrison’s hilarious painted puns and queer pinups). With admirable economy of means, Emilie Louise Gossiaux’s drawing True Love Will Find You in the End captures her poignant codependency with her seeing eye-dog companion. Doorway, by Danielle Klebes, presents a momentary equilibrium between human and pet facing off between doorstep and yard. They seem to pose the same question: shall I stay or shall I go?
Polly Shindler’s Good Night Dog and Emily Weisskopf’s Bunny capture the childlike tenderness and vulnerability of a cuddly animal. Zach Seeger’s Coyote, set in a Fauvist landscape, is as carefree as the wind thanks to thick impasto and lusty and energetic brushwork. And, let’s face it, some dogs are sexy beasts. Leslie Brack layers a cutout of a white fluffy dog licking its chops onto some black painted pubes, with a nod to Courbet’s Origin of the World. In Leslie Finn’s haunting collage Spectral Families, a pair of black hounds emerge from obscurity to guard two masked Victorian-era dandies who just might be lovers – the uncertainty is the point.
Other works that caught my eye are Mary Lesser’s New Tenants, whose iconography brings Philip Guston to mind, and Louise Belcourt’s irresistible furry and tactile dog’s back, set against an abstract minimalist background. Douglas Degges’ playful man-dog collaboration takes the form of small abstract sculptures made from chewed-up, stringy dog toys. And Inkpa Mani’s full-length portrait of a woman and child in a moment of high anxiety – it’s unclear if the matriarch or the howling beast is braver – pushes the show’s boundaries beyond the cute and adorable.
Last year, while organizing “Magnum O-Pspsps,” a similarly expansive cat show, Morgan encountered artists who declined to participate by confessing they were dog people. The success of that earlier effort spurred him to get these dogs and their people together. He’s hardly the first to point out that Dog is God (hence the “Deus” in the show’s title) backwards, but the point has enduring weight. We do seem to be in the presence of higher beings. If you are in the mood for some exultation, these dogs will bust open your heart.
“Deus Ex Bark-ina,” curated by Michael Morgan. Ely Center of Contemporary Art, 162 James Street, New Haven, CT. Through September 13, 2026. Closing reception 3–6 PM. Artists: Scott Michael Ackerman, Bill Adams, Elina Ansary, Michael Ashkin, Jan Baracz, Louise Belcourt, Sammy Bennett, Matt Bollinger, George Boorujy, Leslie Brack, Oscar Cornejo, Marissa Cote, Keira Curwen, Douglas Degges, Tamar Ettun, Alessandra Exposito, Lesley Finn, Kati Gegenheimer, Ella Grimm, Emilie Louise Gossiaux, Eric Hibit, Juan Hinojosa, Will Hutnick, Bethany Jean, Kyle Bellucci Johanson, Pierce Corbin Kinnally, Danielle Klebes, Annamariah Knox, Mona Kowalska, Sophie Larrimore, Matthew Lax, Lisa Lebofsky, Mary Lesser, Joanna Malinowska, JJ Manford, Inkpa Mani, Leeza Meksin, Michael Morgan, Stephen Morrison, Noel Neri, Sheila Novak, Hyunjin Park, Alix Pearlstein, Terry Plater, Erika Ranee, Carol Saft, Anastasia Sargent, Zach Seeger, Polly Shindler, Anastasiya Tarasenko, Tatiana Tatum, Cristhian Varela, Melanie Vote, Emily Weiskopf, Keiaria Williams
About the author: Helen Kauder is a collagist based in New Haven, and a former Executive Director of Artspace.
