Online Exhibition: Cat As Muse, Cat As Fuse, Selected By Elena Passarello//

“This week, I perused NIAD’s deep online catalogue with three of my favorite creatures lounging nearby: Columbo, Spooner, and Q–my housemates, who happen to be cats. This trio is a far cry from any cave lion, but they are without fail the most artful component of my home. Each one is well-composed and eye-catching, but is also no stranger to brutalism. They pose like odalisques and then jet into the night with an abstract flash. I could stop writing about everything else and focus only on their antics for the rest of my life and never run short of inspiration.

So here are eleven cats from NIAD’s holdings, in honor of the (literally) timeless human tradition of depicting the nearby animals that fascinate us, with a particular focus on the species of animal that fascinates me the most…

View the exhibition.