Art: Primal Animals in Acrylic and Wood

Through March 29; folkartmuseum.org.

There’s an amazing little wooden tiger in the American Folk Art Museum’s teaching collection. Made around 1980 in Oaxaca by Manuel Jimenez, the piece is at once so simply shaped and so brightly painted that it comes across less as a depiction of any specific animal than as a vivid realization of the very idea of tigerness.

Starting Jan. 16, you’ll be able to visit it, along with a spotted pig, a yellow fox and a green dog, in the lobby of the Citigroup Building in Long Island City as part of “A Kingdom in Pieces,” where they’ll be keeping company with contemporary animal-focused paintings by artists associated with the nearby Fountain House Gallery. WILL HEINRICH