YONKERS, NY.- Opening on September 18, 2026, two captivating exhibitions at the Hudson River Museum explore our complex relationship with the natural world, revealing its extraordinary beauty and fragility while examining the impact of human activity. Exquisite Creatures explores humanity’s enduring fascination with the living world through the work of artist and naturalist Christopher Marley. Borinquen Gallo: Jungle Bliss features a site-specific installation that explores the consequences of disposable consumer culture and its complex effect on the environment.

“This fall, the Hudson River Museum will present two exhibitions that are perfect intersection of art and science,” stated Masha Turchinsky, Anita K. Hersh Director and CEO. “Together, Exquisite Creatures and Jungle Bliss speak to our strong desire to connect with the natural world on a personal level, and reflect the urgent need to protect the extraordinary diversity of life and its habitat. We're excited to bring audiences together to activate these incredible spaces.”

Exquisite Creatures
September 18, 2026–January 31, 2027

Using animal, mineral, and plant specimens as his medium, artist and naturalist Christopher Marley creates striking three-dimensional compositions that reveal nature’s intricate beauty and diversity. Through vibrant displays of symmetry, balance, and pattern, the exhibition invites visitors to look closely and experience biophilia—our innate need to connect with nature. This is the first exhibition at the HRM that leverages our multidisciplinary nature with our partnership with Art Bridges, founded by Alice Walton, which organized and is travelling the exhibition to museums across the county.

Exquisite Creatures features more than 3,500 ethically-sourced wildlife specimens, including butterflies, beetles, snakes, birds, lizards, fish, sharks, and more. All of the vertebrates that Marley uses in his work are reclaimed after dying of natural or incidental causes. He has innovated techniques for a host of organisms that are not typically considered good candidates for preservation. He also utilizes insects collected or bred in an environmentally sensitive manner that uses a worldwide network of people and institutions that share his passion for nature.

“My work was born of a desire to share nature’s majesty in a way that inspires us all,” states artist Christopher Marley. “I believe that in the proper light, beauty is found in every organism and that the deeper our appreciation for the aesthetics of nature, the more eager we are to immerse ourselves in it and conserve it.”

Christopher Marley is an artist, naturalist, photographer, and author who uses preserved natural specimens as his medium. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest, immersed in nature from his earliest memories. During a decade spent traveling the world as a fashion model, Marley’s passion for discovering unfamiliar elements in the natural world became an obsession.





Exquisite Creatures is organized by Art Bridges and curated by Christopher Marley.

Borinquen Gallo: Jungle Bliss
September 18, 2026–March 14, 2027

Interdisciplinary artist Borinquen Gallo will transform the Hudson River Museum’s Community and Partnership Gallery into a lush, site-specific installation that explores the consequences of disposable consumer culture and its complex effect on the environment. Gallo, with help from the public, will create an immersive artwork from familiar discarded materials—including netting, caution tape, and plastic bags—into dense, textural weavings. The installation will also include animated projections of butterflies and jungle critters that expand visually onto the surrounding gallery walls.

Jungle Bliss functions as a powerful visual metaphor, examining the tensions between nature and artifice, permanence and transience, and individual responsibility and collective action. In the Hudson Valley, invasive species are spreading unchecked and reshaping local forests into dense, jungle-like landscapes; microplastics are polluting local waterways; and real estate development is fragmenting natural habitats into concrete jungles. Through the use of materials and community involvement, the installation draws attention to pressing environmental threats and advocates for the stewardship and preservation of Hudson Valley's ecosystems.

“Weaving alone allows me to slow down and hear myself think, while weaving collectively allows me to connect to others, foster community, and carve out a space for dialogue,” states Borinquen Gallo. “By transforming waste into a collective act of creation, participants become active contributors to an artwork that imagines repair as both an ecological and a social practice. Jungle Bliss ultimately invites us to reconsider our relationship to the materials we discard, the environments we inhabit, and one another, reminding us that caring for our forests also means strengthening the social fabric of the communities that sustain them.”