Our Mission
Since 2008, the Center for PostNatural History has played a vital role in increasing understanding of human entanglement with the natural world. While humans were once mere participants in the evolutionary process, we are now a primary force shaping it, from the indigenous origins of agriculture to genetic engineering. Such profound transformation necessitates public education, awareness, and dialogue, which PostNatural provides through exhibitions, workshops, collaborations, and multimedia content.
Follow us! @postnaturalhistory
Learn about our sister museum, the Swiss Musée d'histoire post-naturelle (MHPN) led by Gil Oliveira.
Photo by Stephanie Strasburg
Richard Pell - Founder, Executive Director, & Curator of PostNatural Organisms
Lauren Allen - Ex-Officio Director of Science and Learning
About Founder & Director Rich Pell
Richard Pell is an artist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is an Associate Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon, and is the founder and executive director of the Center for PostNatural History (CPNH), a museum dedicated to the collection and exposition of life-forms that have been intentionally and heritably altered through domestication, selective breeding, or genetic engineering. Pell’s works have appeared in science and art museums internationally including the Victoria and Albert Museum and Wellcome Collection in London, the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, the CCCB in Barcelona, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the 2008 Taipei Biennial, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The CPNH has been featured in National Geographic, Nature Magazine, American Scientist, National Public Radio, and the Atlas Obscura. The CPNH has been awarded a Rockefeller New Media fellowship, a Creative Capital fellowship, a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, and received generous support from Waag Society and the Kindle Project. His book, This Is NOT An Artifact was published by K-Verlag Press in 2023. Pell is a National Academy of Science KAVLI Fellow and was awarded the 2016 Pittsburgh Artist of the Year. Pell was a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed art and engineering group The Institute for Applied Autonomy.
POSTNATURAL Board of Directors:
Dr. Stuart CandyChair
Maria Silvestri Secretary
Reed TaylorTreasurer
Maggie HartnickDirector
Sadaf Cameron Director
Nicole HellerDirector
Byron RichDirector
In Memoriam
Dr. Stephen Tonsor Founding Chair
Associate Institutions
In addition to our permanent museum in Pittsburgh, we produce exhibitions that travel to, and sometimes partner with, other museums. Since 2008 our exhibits have traveled to Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Belgium, England, Ireland, Scotland, Singapore, Australia, and the United States.Visions of the PostNatural. University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor. 2025
Artificial Kunstlich. Musée de la nature du Valais, Switzerland. 2022.
Ciencia Friccion. Azkuna Society and Contemporary Culture Centre in Bilbao, Spain 11/29/22 - 2/26/23
Ciencia Friccion. CCCB. Barcelona, Spain. 2021.
Interspecies Futures. Center for Book Arts. NYC. 2021.
Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology. Gregg Museum, NCSU Oct-Mar. 2019
Spectres of the PostNatural. Seattle Art Fair (Official Selection). 2019
That was then. This is Now. Los Angeles Natural History Museum Feb-May. 2019
'Creatures Made to Measure. Animals and Contemporary Design', Design Museum Gent, Belgium. 2019
Creatures Made to Measure. Animals and Contemporary Design. Marta Herford Museum, Germany. 2018
HUMAN+ Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Italy. 2018
Moon Ark, (contribution to reliquary to be placed on Moon in 2024.
We Are Nature, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Pittsburgh, PA 10/27 – 9/15
Birdland and the Anthropocene, Peale Museum, Baltimore, MD 10/6 – 10/28
Postnaturaleza, Museum of Natural Science and Zaragoza University, Spain 9/22-11/18.
Art’s Work In The Age Of Biotechnology, Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC 4/17
HUMAN+ ArtScience Museum, Singapore. 2017
Wellcome Collection. “Making Nature”. London. 2016.
DATA(After)Lives, Frick Fine Arts Gallery, University of Pittsburgh. 2016.
The Myth of the Great Outright Extraordinary! Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Artist of the Year. 2016.
That was then. This is now. University of Dundee. Scotland. 2016.
ExoEvolution. ZKM. Karlsruhe, Germany. 2015
Human+. CCCB. Barcelona, Spain. 2015
[macro]biologies I: the biosphere. Art Laboratory. Berlin, Mar 2014 – May 2014.
1st Conference on Xenobiology. Genoa, Italy. May 2014.
PNO’s of the EU. Fire and Ice Festival, Brussels, Belgium. April 2014.
Intimate Science. Parsons School of Design. Feb 6 – Apr 15th, 2014.
Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, U of LA. Intimate Science. Lafayette, LA Sept 7 – Nov 30, 2013
Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design. Intimate Science. Pasedena, CA. May 31 – Aug 18, 2013
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. PostNatural Nature. April 22, 2013
Galleria Kapelica. PostNatural Organisms of the European Union. Ljubjana, Slovenia
Intimate Science. Real Art Ways. Hartford, CT. Nov 3, 2012 – March 21, 2013
PostNatural Organisms of the European Union. Waag Society. NL. 2012.
Southern Exposure. Intimate Science. San Francisco, CA. April 20 – Jun 2, 2012.
Miller Gallery. Intimate Science. Pittsburgh, PA. Jan 21 – March 4, 2012
Science Gallery. Human+ Dublin, UK
Royal Institute of Science. Life 2.0. Australia
Z33. Alter Nature. Belgium November 2010 – March 2011
La Ville Mobile. Biennale international Design. Saint-Etienne. Nov 2010 – Mar 2011.
Verbeke Foundation. Wunderkammer.2 Belgium. May 28th – October 30th.
Model Gallery, DORM. Sligo, Ireland – May 2010
ArtLaboratory Berlin, Seized. September – November, 2009
Exit Art, NYC. Corpus Extremus (LIFE+). Feb 28th – April 18th. 2009
Center for Art and Design, 4:5 UMBC, Baltimore. Jan 12th – Mar 30th
Stills Gallery, Copy Wrong. Edinburgh, Scotland. Sept. 2008
Schenectady Science Museum. Transgenic Organisms of New York State. Schenectady, NY. Nov 1st – Dec 31st, 2008
Acknowledgments
The Center for PostNatural History is made possible in part by generous support from: The Kindle Project, The Creative Capital Foundation, The Waag Society, The Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, The Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Media Arts Fellowships (funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through the Tribeca Film Institute), New York State Council on the Arts, The Schenectady Museum, our museum visitors, and possibly YOU!
The Center for PostNatural History (2008) has no relation to the Institute for Postnatural Studies (2020).