WAUSAU – The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum announced this week Swedish artist Gunnar Tryggmo as its 2024 master wildlife artist.
He will be honored during the 49th annual “Birds in Art” exhibition this fall.
Tryggmo, the 41st master artist, will receive the Master Wildlife Artist Medal during the “Birds in Art” opening weekend, Sept. 7 and 8.
“I have the biggest smile, my wildest dream as a wildlife artist came through,” Tryggmo said in a news release. “I am so grateful to the Woodson Art Museum. When I look at the lineup of previous masters, I feel very honored. To be included in this prestigious group of artists is beyond compare the biggest milestone in my career.”
The inspiration for Tryggmo’s artworks comes from an interest in wildlife and natural environment developed during his childhood in Sweden. Diverse landscapes, from coastlines to dense forests, appear in his work in watercolor, oil, and drawings.
“Gunnar Tryggmo’s artwork has been long admired by Woodson Art Museum visitors and his peers in ‘Birds in Art,’” said museum director Matt Foss in the release. “Since his first inclusion in the exhibition in 2010, Gunnar’s work evolved, seemingly getting stronger each year while maintaining the delicate nature of his subjects, which always seem at peace with their surroundings in nature.”
The exhibition, on view through Dec. 1, will feature a selection of Tryggmo’s artwork along with more than 100 original paintings, sculptures and graphics created within the last three years by artists from throughout the world.
