Animals in Art: Clay Creatures by Viktor Schreckengost included seven ceramic animal works loaned by CMA and six ceramic tiles owned by Cleveland Metroparks Zoo that were originally sculpted to depict extinct birds in flight. Each tile underwent surface cleaning and conservation, provided by CMA, prior to the opening of the exhibition.

Also available for viewing were two colossal bas-reliefs of a mammoth and an elephant, created by Schreckengost in 1955 and 1956, as a permanent fixture on the façade of the zoo's pachyderm building.

Schreckengost's interest in animal forms took shape well before the completion of the aviary (now demolished) and the pachyderm building at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in the 1950s. Many of the small-scale sculptures from the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection were completed between 1934 and 1948 as the artist experimented with layering and stacking clay to arrive at more dynamic and textured forms.