“STEP RIGHT UP”: This oil painting by Jody Olcott is featured in “Donna McCullough + Jody Olcott,” on view through October 22 at Morpeth Contemporary in Hopewell. A reception will be held on Saturday, October 7 from 5-7 p.m.

In “Donna McCullough + Jody Olcott,” on view through October 22 at Morpeth Contemporary in Hopewell, recent works by the artists offer deeply felt narratives related to women’s rights and animal welfare, two important issues of our time. At once beautiful and hopeful, they capture how art can inspire both reflection and action.

An opening reception is on Saturday, October 7 from 5 to 7 p.m.

McCullough is known for exploring the female silhouette as a representative of beauty, struggle, and power. In her freestanding steel and scrap-metal “dresses,” exhibited over the years at Morpeth, she crafted images of the “armor” that women have needed to put on in navigating both the corporate and social spheres of the modern world. Over time her work has evolved into celebrating distinctly female influences in her own life along with the universal theme of empowerment. In recent pieces like Freedom and Lift, in fact, her winged bodies practically take flight: wall-mounted, with powerful wingspans, they symbolize the potential for metamorphosis and renewal, particularly after a period of strife.

Olcott’s work is also tinged with advocacy. Like her previous exhibitions at Morpeth, her Requiem Series focuses on extinct and endangered animals. Some are portraits and constructions inspired by Byzantine icons, though here the subject enshrouded with a halo is a member of the animal kingdom, not a religious figure or saint — it is a creature whose demise, whether through habitat loss, poaching, or invasive species, traces to human activity. Olcott further explores the human-animal bond by portraying awe-inspiring exotic creatures that have been removed from their natural habitat and trained to entertain us in carnivals or circuses, with the structural playfulness of her assemblages undercut by the crosshairs or bullseyes that closer inspection brings into view.

Olcott, who holds a B.S. in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University, works out of her studio in Hopewell. Her early work was in both assemblage and collage; it was exhibited in New York City, where she lived in the early eighties. A visit in 1996 to the Kizhi Pogost Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia, left a visceral impression on Olcott that eventually proved the catalyst for the Requiem Series.

McCullough, who has a studio on her farm in Maryland, shares Olcott’s love of animals, often memorializing horses, fowl, and canines in her steel sculptures. In 2012, McCullough received the Recognition of Excellence Award from the James Renwick Alliance in Washington, D.C. Her previous exhibitions sites include the Corcoran Museum of Art, the Art Museum of the Americas, the Hickory Museum of Art, the International Museum of the Horse, Grounds For Sculpture, and the United States Botanic Garden.

Morpeth Contemporary is at 43 West Broad Street in Hopewell. For more information, call (609) 333-9393 or visit morpethcontemporary.com.