16 Mexican Alebrije Noah's Ark and Animals Sculptures, "Noah in Oaxaca"

Carving found pieces copal wood, Armando Jimenez releases the fanciful figures he perceives there. He creates his own version of Noah's Ark with a removable gangplank and six windows. Animals — a frog, two tigers, an anteater and two tigers — peer out from each one, and they can easily be put in place and arranged as desired. Waiting to board the ark are a rabbit, a lion, a walrus, and a polar bear. They are joined by a grey mouse, a raccoon, a dove and a purple cat.

These fanciful sculptures are a traditional folk art in Oaxaca, once based on twenty totems but today representing all kinds of animals. They take their name from a Caló gypsy word for "something difficult, tangled, confusing or fantastic."

Because each alebrije is an individually created work of folk art, shapes will vary slightly.