Mary Engel has exhibited her mixed-media animal sculptures at Marcia Wood Gallery for nearly a decade. Originally from Chicago and currently living and working in Athens, GA, her work has shown and been reviewed extensively nationally since 1986. Engel's work is held in numerous important private collections, as well as institutions including Children’s Healthcare of Scottish Rite in Atlanta, The Arthur Blank Family Foundation, the Detroit Zoo, the Disney Corporation and the President’s Collection of the University of Georgia. In the last two years, Engel's work has also been presented and received with overwhelming response at numerous important international art fairs, including Pulse Miami 2005, Art Chicago 2005, and ART(212) NY 2006. Museum exhibitions include Macon Museum of Arts & Sciences, Macon, GA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL, Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC, and Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, AL.

Mary Engel's over-the-top animal figures are startling. Large in scale and in commanding poses, they are covered with layers of found objects in dazzling compositions that are simultaneously charming, bizarre and somewhat disturbing. The current body of work by this Georgia artist reaches an exhilarating new level of wit and concept that is particularly animated and arresting. Engel covers the surfaces of her fired-ceramic, roughly life-size animal figures with a collection of vintage full-figure porcelain animal figurines. Composed primarily of dogs, the upcoming exhibit also features a few other members of the animal kingdom, such as a horse laden horse, crazy elephant and even a dog with its human companion. The frenetic energy the works emanate is cheerfully schizophrenic, an experience that is both outrageous and compelling.