Mark Dion’s diverse body of work – from sculpture and installation to drawing and printmaking – has focused primarily on the history of natural history. Armed with a wry wit and critical eye, Dion examines and questions longstanding ideologies and the cultural institutions that have played a central role in disseminating the information we receive.

Dion has collaborated with the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies since 2008, producing seven remarkable print projects that often extend beyond the boundaries of traditional printmaking to address subjects such as taxonomy and classification, the evolution of museum collections, and the culture of hunting. On view here is Dion’s latest project, Museum Culture, a suite of eight screenprints, which borrows from nineteenth-century natural history illustrations to reconsider and challenge the narratives around the origins, missions and collecting practices of museums.

"Over the past forty years museums have gone through a dramatic transformation as they strive to become more democratic, inclusive, accessible, responsive to the public and innovative. Needless to say, they still have a long way to go. The Museum’s relationship to funding, scholarship and education have all proven complex and problematic struggles in institutional identity. As someone who often collaborates with museums and intervenes within their collections and exhibitions, I feel like I have been an artist embedded in the battle for the Museum’s souls. This portfolio of prints in some ways represents my field journal notes from the front lines of the culture wars." -- Mark Dion