The 星空无限传媒鈥檚 Angelica Drozda, a visual arts major in its College of the Arts, has earned the International Exhibition on Animals in Art鈥檚 鈥淏est in Show鈥 award for her 鈥淪wamp Rabbit鈥 sculpture.
The yearly juried exhibition features pieces that depict animals, insects and fish done in a range of artistic styles and mediums. It is coordinated by the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. The 2026 exhibition will run through Nov. 6.
Among the 57 works selected from 293 entries submitted by artists from the U.S. and Canada, 鈥淎nimals in Art鈥 exhibition judges recently selected award winners in several categories.
Drozda鈥檚 idea for her award-winning sculpture came as part of a class assignment that called for incorporating found objects into a piece that represented the relationship between animals and humans.
The student artist crafted her sculpture with materials such as steel, foam, clay, flocking, sheet metal, spent shell casings and wire. The finished product features 鈥淪wamp Rabbit鈥 crouched beneath a dandelion that twists up and around it.
The flower鈥檚 jagged petals and the shell casings embedded in its center are intended to symbolize that humans have 鈥渢urned against nature,鈥 Drozda said.
鈥淭he dandelion is twisting onto the rabbit and staring down with a face full of shells. I wanted the petals to look menacing to represent a twisted relationship that we have with nature, not just hunting, but how we fail to take the gift of creation and creatures into account,鈥 she added.
Drozda鈥檚 favorite medium for artistic expression was painting when she enrolled in the University鈥檚 visual arts program. She switched her concentration from painting to sculpture, however, after studying the medium during one of her courses. 鈥淚 fell in love with sculpture and I just stuck with it, although I still paint,鈥 she said.
鈥淭here are just so many different aspects to sculpture, so many ways to approach making a three-dimensional work. And no matter what process you choose, you're still exploring how objects are interacting in space,鈥 Drozda added.
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Photo caption: 星空无限传媒 Lafayette visual arts major Angelica Drozda鈥檚 sculpture 鈥淪wamp Rabbit鈥 recently claimed the 鈥淏est in Show鈥 award as part of the International Exhibition on Animals in Art. Submitted photo