Wild art exhibit in Tribeca combines efforts of artists and animals

TRIBECA, Manhattan (WABC) -- A new exhibit opening Wednesday night in Lower Manhattan really lets your imagination run 'wild'.

The works of art are actually created with the help of animals.

Not dogs and cats, but birds, bees, bugs, and much more.

"I thought how do I complete with nature, it's already so beautiful so instead of trying to compete with it, I decided to join it, instead of painting a spider web, I paint the spider web," said artist Michael Simon.

Golden orb spiders, which can be as big as your hand, spun the webs inside Michael's studio in South Korea.

They're covered with between 30 and 100 coats of paint and are part of a new exhibition in Tribeca at Apexart.

Emily Falvey is the curator of 'Animal Intent', and tells me she hopes each of the works challenges those who come here, in two specific ways.

"I would like them to question the notion that animals do not make art and perhaps rethink their relationship with animals," she said.

In one video, the artist focused on caterpillars, letting them crawl across white paper dotted with piles of charcoal.

Some porcelain pieces were placed in bee hives. The insects then slowly transformed them into honeycombed sculptures.

Artist Annie Dunning looked what animals, specifically yellow bellied sapsuckers, do in their day to day lives.

A bronze cast of a log she found is filled with small holes made by the woodpecker.

"They're drilling to either find food or to signal, use sound as kind of a territorial marker," said Dunning.

It's now a music box. This intriguing exhibit runs through March 18th.

For more information, visit: https://apexart.org/