AlyssaNeon green cats, massive goldfish, and tree people dancing, Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature, the newest exhibition at the McNay Art Museum, transports you into a world where dreams and reality vividly collide.
This week I had the pleasure of listening to Sandy Skoglund during the press preview at the McNay. The artist behind Enchanting Nature shared her philosophy on art and life with refreshing honesty. She spoke of creating as a way to escape her own thinking mind, and to feel the art rather than think it. As we continued walking through the exhibit, Skolgund discussed our collective fascination with artificial reality and the ways we use curated aesthetics to escape the nuances and harsh truths of reality. I wondered — how often are we collectively constructing alternate worlds to find beauty, to create order, or simply to cope?
A vivid blend of photography, installation, and imagination, Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature unfolds across three immersive rooms filled with larger-than-life sculptures. The first room, “Fresh Hybrid”, brings together three human figures covered in brightly colored felt alongside human-esque trees with legs as roots, all entwined in a pipe-cleaner paradise. The mesmerizing colors of sun-drenched orange, emerald green and ocean blue entrance you so and the soft texture of the pipe cleaners enhances the surreal nature of the installation. Make sure to look closely at the branches of the trees for they are blossoming with yellow baby chicks!
The second room has been overtaken by neon green cats, crawling throughout a gray-toned apartment, communicating and interacting with each other as cats do. “Radioactive Cats”, along with the other installations, speaks to the resilience of nature and the uneasy tension between humans and the natural world.
In “Revenge of the Goldfish”, the final room, you’re transported into an aquatic bedroom alive with 119 handmade ceramic goldfish. No longer confined to a bowl on the counter, these luminous creatures have taken over the space entirely, illustrating the quiet triumph of small, beautiful creatures.
The strange and vibrant world of Sandy Skoglund is one I would live in for a quite awhile, and perhaps already am.
Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature is on view now through February 1, 2026, at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.
