The Missoula Art Museum (MAM) in Missoula, Montana, presented a special exhibition titled "Land and the Cosmic," featuring artworks from its collection that explore representations of land. A highlighted piece is Nancy Erickson's "Vesuvius Revisited, Model and Capybara" (1988), a fabric and paint work by the late artist (1935-2022). Erickson, known for her larger-than-life quilt paintings blending animals with human figures, studied zoology and nutrition before earning an MFA in painting. Her work appears in over 500 exhibitions worldwide, with MAM holding the largest collection of her pieces.
This exhibition matters because it showcases the work of a significant regional artist whose career spanned decades and whose themes—human-animal relationships, environmental change, and forest fire impacts—remain deeply relevant. By highlighting Erickson's unique fusion of scientific background and artistic practice, MAM underscores the importance of preserving and presenting local art histories that connect personal narrative with broader ecological and cultural conversations.