08/21/2026
The Bret Llewellyn Gallery at Alfred State College presents "Man Eat Animal Eat Man" by Jennie Thwing.
Monday, August 31 - Friday, October 2, 2026
Reception and Artist Talk
12PM, Thursday, September 17
Gallery Hours
9:00am-4:00pm, Monday - Friday
*Extra Hours for Alfred Art Walk
“Man Eat Animal Eat Man” is an installation that includes a series of wall-mounted animal head sculptures, an animation titled “Run” and a life-size Buffalo Puppet surrounded by seagulls.
All of the animals in “Man Eat Man” are found in North America. Each of these animal populations has experienced change in the last 200 years due to industrialization.
The Exhibition explores the ties between humanity and nature, specifically man’s love of, reliance on and recklessness with nature. I chose to create a buffalo surrounded by seagulls to show that everything in the natural world is fragile, constantly changing, and impermanent. The animation depicts a man running from and towards different animals.
Why the Buffalo? The American buffalo population dropped by more than 99.9% during the 19th century. After dropping from tens of millions down to fewer than 1,000 animals by the late 19th century, conservation efforts have rebounded the population to roughly 400,000 today. 1.
Why the Seagulls? Over the past 300 years, North American gull populations experienced a dramatic cycle: they plummeted during the 19th century due to intense egg harvesting and the feather trade, exploded to historic highs mid-20th century by feeding on open-air landfills and commercial fishery waste, and are now in a steep decline due to modern trash management and shifting marine ecosystems2.
Artist Biography Jennie Thwing is an artist, animator, and educator. She received her BFA from Tyler School of Art and her MFA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She teaches animation at Alfred State College in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Grizzly Grizzly, Local Project, Chashama Space to Present, the Arlington Arts Center, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, The Mainline Art Center, Soho 20 Gallery, School 33, Fleisher Art Memorial Dene M. Locheim Gallery, Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Studio 34, and 20.20. She has curated numerous multidisciplinary exhibitions and attended residencies in the US, Norway, New Zealand, and Canada. Her animations have screened in the NY Indie Film Festival, The Buffalo international Film Festival, The Valencia Indie Film Festival, and the Experimental Film Festival. She has received numerous awards, including the 2014 Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art; an Environmental Art Project Grant at the Schuylkill Center; a 2013 - 15’ Center for Emerging Artists Fellowship; a 2014 SPARC Artist in Residence grant; a 2014 & 2019 Queens Arts Fund Grant, a 2024 and 20226 Wyoming Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grant and a 2025 Support for Artists Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Where is this work being shown? “Man Eat Animal Eat Man” will be exhibited at The Brett Llewelyn Gallery at Alfred State College and the Arts Council for Wyoming County Gallery (February 2027.) The seagulls and buffalo puppet will be exhibited in the Wellsville Christmas Parade in Fall on November 29, 2026.
Special Thanks to Alfred State College SUNY, the Babcock Preservation Society, the David A. Howe Public Library, the Arts Council for Wyoming County, the New York State Council on the Arts and the United University Professions (UUP,) and the community volunteers who helped build the seagulls.
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Arts Council for Wyoming County.
