ALBANY, NY.- An exhibition featuring nature-based artwork created by talented artists from around the world will open at the New York State Museum on April 19, 2014. Focus on Nature XIII: Natural and Cultural History Illustration showcases 91 natural and cultural history illustrations from 71 artists.

Open through January 4, 2015 in Photography Gallery, this biennial exhibition has continued to grow in both scope and reputation. This year's artwork was selected from 379 entries submitted by 172 artists. Artists represented this year are from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America. A list of the featured artists is available here.

"Focus on Nature continues to be a popular exhibition and the Board of Regents and the State Museum are proud to again display illustrations created by artists from around the world," said State Museum Director Mark Schaming. "The selected works this year are extraordinary and are brilliant examples of illustrations of the natural world by a group of very accomplished artists."

The exhibition's goal is to demonstrate the important role illustration has in natural science research and education and to display images of nature that people might not otherwise be able to experience. A five-member jury of artists and scientists selected the artwork included in the exhibition based on the illustration's scientific accuracy and uniqueness, educational value and artistic quality.

The subjects represented in the exhibition are diverse, ranging from those only found in the artists' home countries, to those that have a worldwide distribution. The exhibition features illustrations of extinct creatures such as the Titanosaur by Chilean artist Mauricio Alvarez Abel and the Kosmoceratops by New York artist James Gurney, to newly discovered and named organisms such as the Principe Thrush (Turdus xanthorhynchus) and Coelogyne species. A special feature of this year's exhibition is a 3-D illustration of Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) by Swiss artist Livia Maria Enderli. This reconstruction of a skull from an archaeological site in Uzbekistan found in 1938 uses the latest technology available to artists and scientists.