During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY-based artist Rory Mulligan turned his camera from the wider world to his own backyard. "Auguries" presents images from this ongoing project that capture moments of chance within a carefully constructed stage that combines fabric backdrops and found materials to attract a wide variety of birds. Following the National Audubon Society’s guidelines for ethical bird photography, Mulligan draws upon art historical tropes of still life painting and studio portraiture. For the artist, birds represent joy, beauty, and grace, but also reminders of the precarity of our natural environment.

The exhibition was generously sponsored by Color Center and DotWorks with installation support by OUTFRONT Media.

Rory Mulligan (b. 1984, New York) received his MFA in Photography from Yale University and is Assistant Teaching Professor of Art at Drew University in Madison, NJ. Mulligan’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Light Work. Mulligan’s work has been published by J&L Books, Blind Spot, MATTE, Soft Copy and the New York Times Magazine, among others. His writing has appeared in two Aperture books (The Photographer’s Playbook and Photo No-No’s). Mulligan has been an artist in residence at Light Work (Syracuse, NY) and LMCC’s Art Residency Program on Governor’s Island. He has lectured at Sarah Lawrence College, Yale University, Princeton University, School of the Art Institute Chicago, and the International Center of Photography, among many others. A forthcoming monograph of collected work from 2005 – 2020 is set for a 2024 release.