The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Angelica Drozda, a visual arts major in its College of the Arts, has earned the International Exhibition on Animals in Art’s “Best in Show” award for her “Swamp Rabbit” sculpture.
The yearly juried exhibition features pieces that depict animals, insects and fish done in a range of artistic styles and mediums. It is coordinated by the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. The 2026 exhibition will run through Nov. 6.
Among the 57 works selected from 293 entries submitted by artists from the U.S. and Canada, “Animals in Art” exhibition judges recently selected award winners in several categories.
Drozda’s idea for her award-winning sculpture came as part of a class assignment that called for incorporating found objects into a piece that represented the relationship between animals and humans.
The student artist crafted her sculpture with materials such as steel, foam, clay, flocking, sheet metal, spent shell casings and wire. The finished product features “Swamp Rabbit” crouched beneath a dandelion that twists up and around it.
The flower’s jagged petals and the shell casings embedded in its center are intended to symbolize that humans have “turned against nature,” Drozda said.
“The dandelion is twisting onto the rabbit and staring down with a face full of shells. I wanted the petals to look menacing to represent a twisted relationship that we have with nature, not just hunting, but how we fail to take the gift of creation and creatures into account,” she added.
Drozda’s favorite medium for artistic expression was painting when she enrolled in the University’s visual arts program. She switched her concentration from painting to sculpture, however, after studying the medium during one of her courses. “I fell in love with sculpture and I just stuck with it, although I still paint,” she said.
“There are just so many different aspects to sculpture, so many ways to approach making a three-dimensional work. And no matter what process you choose, you're still exploring how objects are interacting in space,” Drozda added.
Learn more about the Animals in Art exhibition award winners.
Photo caption: UL Lafayette visual arts major Angelica Drozda’s sculpture “Swamp Rabbit” recently claimed the “Best in Show” award as part of the International Exhibition on Animals in Art. Submitted photo