Sacred Biodiversity: Contemporary Icons of Threatened and Endangered Species

Sacred Biodiversity is an exhibition of contemporary icons of threatened and endangered species by artist and iconographer Angela Manno. These works are executed in the Byzantine Russian style originating in the monasteries of 14th-16th century Russia. The series is a synthesis of Manno’s formal training in traditional Byzantine-Russian iconography and her studies in ecology, cosmology and evolution under cultural historian Thomas Berry. Species depicted represent all classifications: fish, bird, mammal, amphibian, reptile, plants, insects and other invertebrates. In these works, she has expanded the canon of images beyond their traditionally anthropocentric focus to bring the natural world front and center.