Penelope Gottlieb is an Emmy-award winning Motion Picture Title Designer turned fine artist. After receiving her BFA from the Art Center College for Design in Pasadena, California, Penelope Gottlieb went on to earn her MFA from the University of California in Santa Barbara where she currently lives and works. Through the Invasive Plant series, Gottlieb appropriates and significantly alters existing print plates from the John James Audubon archive.

In these paintings, I reconsider the iconic 19th century imagery by girdling the Audubon birds with tightly woven bands of invasive plant species. The images stage an invasion of this historical imagery, enacting the ravages of a contemporary ecological phenomenon wherein non-native species are introduced into an environment and overtake the balance of its delicate ecosystem. By problematizing the renowned ornithologist’s idyllic representations of natural history, I present a revisionist vision of nature in its current state of compromise and literal bondage.

– Penelope Gottlieb

Gottlieb’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums including the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, the Nevada Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her work is included in such private and public collections as The Chicago Art Institute, The National Museum of Wildlife Art, The Whitney Museum of Western Art, and The Palm Springs Museum of Art.