Mycology has influenced the Arts for centuries. Several artists have used fungi both as the subject and media for the past years. Here’s a mini-timeline of Mycology’s influence in Arts and how Fungal Arts evolved over the years.

Richard Doyle (1824-1883)

• Title: “Fairy Rings and Toadstools” (Lithograph)
• Russula-like mushrooms with fairies dancing around them

Beatrix Potter (1886-1943)

• Amateur scientist due to sexism and misogyny of London’s Linnaean Society in her time (not her fault)
• Botanical art and watercolor illustrations of mushrooms

Roger Bansermer (1948)

• Title: “Mushrooms”
• Size: 5×7 in. (framed size is 11 x 13 in.)
• Mushroom description: Agaricus bisporus

Megan Aroon-Duncanson (1972)

• Title: “MushroomLand”
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Mushroom description: allegorical mushroom, possibly a Mycena

Tarsh Bates

• Focused on the relationship of humans and yeasts
• Title: Surface dynamics of adhesion (detail) (2016) exhibition view at Art Laboratory Berlin, Spring 2016
• Refers to the cultural, social, psychological, and not least microbiological aspects of Candida albicans

Vera Meyer

• Mycologist Vera Mayer uses mycelia to create mushroom sculptures.
• Title: “Champi (gn) ons” (2017) Parasol mushroom, iron stand, shellac, rust

Sources

1. Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children’s Book Author’s Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms – Brain Pickings. (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2021, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/28/beatrix-potter-a-life-in-nature-botany-mycology-fungi/
2. Meyer, V. (2019). Merging science and art through fungi. In Fungal Biology and Biotechnology (Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 5). BioMed Central Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40694-019-0068-7
3. Post 1999 – Contemporary – North American Mycological Association. (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2021, from https://namyco.org/post_1999_-_contemporary.php#aroon
4. Rapp, R. (2019). On mycohuman performances: Fungi in current artistic research. In Fungal Biology and Biotechnology (Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 22). BioMed Central Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40694-019-0085-6