Phantasmaphile

Fuyuko Matsui

Fuyuko Matsui  "Eternal Almighty Medicine for Perfect Happiness"  2006

I thought this piece by Fuyuko Matsui was perfect for All Hallow's Eve.  A bit creepy, sure, but also with an otherworldy beauty.  I confess it also appeals to me because it reminds me of something out of the show Fringe, which we have been obsessed with of late.  We just started season 3, and it is bizarre and fun and completely addictive. 

On a related note, the sublime Mazzy Star just released two new singles today: Common Burn and Lay Myself Down.  A tour and new full-length are apparently forthcoming in 2012.  Rejoice!

Here's wishing you all a blessed Samhain.  May you remember your dead, today when the veil between worlds is thinnest.  May you have a splendid start to the Pagan new year.  And may you also eat lots of delicious treats with loved ones, and watch a spooky movie or two (we plan on The Wicker Man and House!)

Leonora Carrington show!

Leonora Carrington

I have a wicked crush on Viktor Wynd's projects, including Observatory's long-lost UK cousin, The Last Tuesday Society, which he runs.  He also has a gallery, Viktor Wynd Fine Art, where he exhibits some of the most unique and imaginal works ever made.  Case in point: his next show is of Leonora Carrington's prints, and it opens on November 5th:

Leonora Carrington, who died this year aged 94, led a life almost as picaresque and surreal as her art; born in Britain, she eloped with Max Ernst, hung out with Picasso and Dali, fled the Nazis, escaped from a Spanish psychiatric hospital and later settled in Mexico, where she built a reputation as one of the most original and visionary British artists and writers of the 20th century.

It's being shown in conjunction with the work of Tilly Losch, another beautifully bizarre broad.

Somnium by Steve Moore

Words cannot express how excited I am to read Steve Moore's Somnium, recently released by the always exceptional Strange Attractor Press.  I don't know much about it, besides the fact that it is a fictional and personal exploration of the Selene and Endymion myth through time.  But Steve Moore + lunar magic + art by John Coulthart + a ringing endorsement and afterword by Alan Moore = the perfect recipe to get my soul salivating.  Full details:

SOMNIUM

By Steve Moore
288pp, A5 HB, £20/£30
ISBN: 978-1-907222-06-1
Published by Somnium Press 

A masterpiece. – Alan Moore

A unique work by a unique genius. Moore has an understanding of the occult peculiar to a very few and it always gives me the shivers; the shivers which say ‘authenticity’. Get this book while you’re part of the minority who know about it.
– Michael Moorcock

A visionary decrypting of one of fringe-London’s most potent downriver sites. Steve Moore’s voyage through plural strands of time echoes the high craft of his namesake, Alan, and the honourable tradition of Michael Moorcock’s Gloriana.
– Iain Sinclair

Somnium is a high quality hardback available in a numbered edition of 250, signed by Steve Moore and Alan Moore, priced £30, and a standard edition of 250, priced £20.

The special edition comes with a litho print of John Coulthart’s beautiful cover art. 

The hardback is available only from Strange Attractor Press. Copies ordered now will be delivered in the first second week of November 2011.

Read the full Press Release here

ABOUT THE BOOK
Written in the early years of the 21st century, when the author was engaged in dream-explorations and mystical practices centred on the Greek moon-goddess Selene, Somnium is an intensely personal and highly-embroidered fictional tapestry that weaves together numerous historical and stylistic variations on the enduring myth of Selene and Endymion. Ranging through the 16th to 21st centuries, it combines mediæval, Elizabethan, Gothic and Decadent elements in a fantastic romance of rare imagination.

With its delirious and heartbroken text spiralling out from the classical myth of Endymion and the Greek lunar goddess Selene, Somnium is an extraordinary odyssey through love and loss and lunacy, illuminated by the silvery moonlight of its exquisite language.

With an afterword by Alan Moore, whose biographical piece Unearthing details the life of his friend and mentor Steve Moore, and includes the circumstances surrounding the writing of  Somnium.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Steve Moore has written comic-books, novels and non-fiction, including Abslom Daak, Laser-Eraser & Pressbutton, Hercules and The Trigrams of Han. He also had a long-standing editorial connection with Fortean Studies and Fortean Times, to which he has been a frequent contributor since its inception. He lives in London.

Alan Moore is the internationally famous author of such graphic classics as Lost Girls, Promethea, From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Alan’s biography of Steve Moore, Unearthing, is available as an audio-recording and a forthcoming book from Lex Records, and will shortly be released in app form, illustrated by noted photographer Mitch Jenkins.

You can order yours here.  Absolutely can't wait til mine arrives.

Macabre & Mysticism show!

Corinne May Botz "The Roehrs House, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey"

I'm such a fan of Corinne May Botz's spectral photographs, so I'm certain that any show she curates is going to be exceptional.  Macabre & Mysticism is a group show she put together which opens at Red Roots gallery on Saturday, October 29th - perfect for getting you in the Samhain spirit:

 

Red Roots is excited to announce its inaugural exhibition - Macabre & Mysticism - guest curated by Corinne May Botz. The exhibition is rooted in dark narratives that lie just beneath the surface of everyday life and includes photography, video and installation works from fifteen artists, curated through an open call for submission.

Please join us this Saturday, October 29th from 6 -10pm to celebrate the opening of Macabre & Mysticism at Red Roots Gallery! Costumes Welcome.

Included Artists:

Ben Alper
Emile Askey
Laura Bell
Emily Cameron
Barnett Cohen
Eran Gilat
Phoenix Lindsey-Hall
Eugen Litwinow
Darin Mickey
Chelsey Morell
Caitlin Parker
Brea Souders
Ayumi Tanaka
Francisco Westendarp
Margaret Wiatrowski

The show will also include a one night projection of video and film work from Jeremy Haik, Leif Huron and Molly Surno.
__

Red Roots Gallery is an exhibition and event space created to support emerging artists by providing a platform for the exchange and outreach of new ideas and projects in the arts.

In collaboration with Conveyor Arts, the Red Roots Gallery features exhibitions curated from open-call submissions, including themed group exhibitions, solo artist shows and new curatorial projects. We will also organize critique groups and put on artist lectures, panel discussions and other events that create an open arena for artists and the community to expand ideas and take them further.

Red Roots Gallery is located on the lower level of the 25CPW Gallery.

 

Do check it out, sounds stupendous.

Upcoming Observatory Events!

Apologies for the sporadic posting of late.  It's been a whirlwind of activity between day jobbery and a trip to Hudson, NY to celebrate my 1 year of marriage / 7 years of in-love-ed-ness with this dashing darling.

Happily, I have lots brewing on the Observatory front, with the following events coming up soon - the first one is tonight, in fact.  Have a read, and please do join me for one or more:

 

Manly P. Hall and The Secret Teachings of All Ages

 

A Talk and Visual Presentation by Mitch Horowitz
Date: TONIGHT, Friday, October 21st
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8
Presented by: Phantasmaphile

It is one of the strangest and most beguiling books of the twentieth century: The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Privately printed in 1928 by a 27-year-old occult scholar named Manly P. Hall, the table-top sized volume – brimming with arcane diagrams, otherworldly illustrations, and detailed entries on everything from Pythagorean mathematics and Egyptian geometry to the origins of the Tarot and the secret authorship of the Shakespearean plays – became one of the most successful underground books ever published. Passing through many printings and versions, including a compact “reader’s edition” in the twenty-first century, it reigns as the Encyclopedia Arcana of the modern age – a must-read for every acolyte of mythical traditions, esoterica, and the occult.

Who was the young and preternaturally gifted author of this massive and impactful work? And what were the circumstances behind the early genius of Hall, a man with little conventional schooling who went on to become the most influential occult voice of the last century? In this vibrant and intellectually lively evening, author Mitch Horowitz (Occult America) – who has written widely about Hall’s life and published the recent “reader’s edition” of The Secret Teachings of All Ages – explores the remarkable persona behind this mysterious tome.

Horowitz dissects the unusual career of Hall and explores his legendary status on the West Coast occult scene for most of the twentieth century. From Hall’s art-deco headquarters in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park neighborhood, the arcane scholar not only helped reignite the academic study of esoterica but made an impact on figures as diffuse as Bela Lugosi and Ronald Reagan (who actually quoted from Hall in his speeches). Horowitz also explores the circumstances surrounding Hall’s 1990 death, which is marked by persistent rumors of foul play. Finally, Horowitz considers the wide-ranging influence of The Secret Teachings of All Ages, including the book’s strengths and weaknesses, enduring mysteries, and seismically powerful, yet underappreciated, impact.

***Books will be available for purchase and signing

Mitch Horowitz is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author of Occult America (Bantam), which The Washington Post Book World called: “Fascinating…a serious, wide-ranging study of all the magical, mystical, and spiritual movements that have arisen and influenced American history in often-surprising ways.” Horowitz has written on alternative spiritual topics for The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, CNBC.com, Boing Boing, and The Washington Post, where he recently explored the relationship between Manly P. Hall and Ronald Reagan. In 2003, Horowitz published the “reader’s edition” of The Secret Teachings of All Ages. He leads Observatory’s popular Occult New York Walking Tours and has discussed alternative spirituality on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, and All Things Considered. Horowitz is currently writing a history of the positive-thinking movement, to be published by Crown. Visit him online at: www.MitchHorowitz.com.

(And be sure to check out this awesome interview with him on Gothamist today).

 

The Magic of Magic Squares

An illustrated lecture by Jesse Bransford
Date: Friday, November 4th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8
Presented by: Phantasmaphile

Magic Squares represent a mathematical convergence of the verbal/syntactical and the visual/compositional. From the simple and elegant Lo Shu sequence from Ancient China to the baroque and heady formulations of the Renaissance magicians, the mystery and fascination of magic squares have a long and interesting cultural history that spans over five thousand years, four continents and dozens of systems of thought.

Referring to recent scholarship on the subject as well as his ten years working with the squares and the systems that developed around them, artist Jesse Bransford will discuss magic squares and all of the wonder, amazement and magic that he finds in the topic.

Bio: A teacher at NYU since 2001, Jesse Bransford also taught at Columbia University for a year before becoming the Director of Undergraduate Study in 2005. Exhibiting widely since 1997, his most recent projects have been solo exhibitions exploring pictorial and visual associations of the observable planets, a series that will eventually result in seven exhibitions.

Recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions in New York (2010), Miami (2009), Toronto (2008), as well as participation in exhibitions in New York ([2011 at Observatory,] 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007), Glasgow (2008), Milwaukee (2007), Los Angeles (2007) and Busan (2008).

Bransford’s work is represented by Feature Inc. in New York, Kevin Bruk Gallery in Miami, Florida, Galerie Schmidt Maczollek in Köln, Germany, and Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Cocktail Alchemy with Julianne Zaleta (Back by popular demand!)

Date: Thursday, November 10th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $20 (You must RSVP to phantasmaphile [at] gmail.com if you’d like to attend, as class size is limited)
Presented by: Phantasmaphile

Cocktails, like perfume, are a mix of art and alchemy. In this workshop you’ll learn how to infuse your own spirits to make seasonal and artful cocktails with fresh herbs, spices, nuts, dried fruits and grains. The spirits are then paired with mixers and piqued with the addition of essential oils, which add their own unique accent to these artisanal creations. Samples of angelica, chocolate mint and basil vodka (amongst others) will be passed around along with the cocktails they inspire.

Julianne Zaleta is a natural perfumer, aromatherapist and herbalist and has trained with Michael Scholes and Jeanne Rose. Owner and sole proprietor of her own company, Herbal Alchemy Apothecary, Julianne creates aromatic and therapeutic remedies and elixirs for a wide variety of ailments. As a perfumer she has trained with Mandy Aftel to create a line of all natural perfumes. Recently she has turned her attention to artisanal cocktails, which makes her work life quite enjoyable, as you can imagine.

 

The Occult in Modern Art 101

Leonora Carrington "La maja del tarot" 1965

An illustrated lecture by Pam Grossman (Yes, c'est moi!)
Date: Friday, November 18th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8
Presented by: Phantasmaphile

Though few history books make mention of it, many of our most lauded artists — Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Duchamp, to name but a few — were deeply influenced by the occult.  The imagery and tenets of arcane traditions including alchemy, Spiritualism, Theosophy, and shamanism have infused the work of artists through the ages.  Beginning with the Symbolists, then spiraling through such periods as Cubism, Dada, Surrealism (with its wonderfully witchy women), Abstract Expressionism, and the visionary art of today, this evening’s lecture will be a visual primer on the existence of magic in our museums and galleries.

Pam Grossman is an independent curator and lifelong student of magical practice and history.  She is the creator of Phantasmaphile, a blog which specializes in art and culture with an esoteric or fantastical bent.  Her group art shows, Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists, VISION QUEST, and Alchemically Yours have been featured by such outlets as Boing Boing, CREATIVE TIME, Time Out New York, Juxtapoz, Arthur, 20×200, UrbanOutfitters.com, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter.  She is a co-founder of Observatory, where her programming aims to explore mysticism via a scholarly yet accessible approach. 

 

Tarot Practicum:  How to Read Any Deck Without a Book

A class with Kathy Biehl
Date: Sunday, November 20th
Time: 2-4pm
Admission: $40 (You must RSVP to phantasmaphile [at] gmail.com if you’d like to attend, as class size is limited)
Presented by: Phantasmaphile

The imagery of the Tarot is rich and complex, intimidating even experienced readers into thumbing through a book for meanings to interpret puzzling cards or an unfamiliar deck. In this intensive practicum, Tarot master Kathy Biehl will teach sure-fire methods for picking up any deck and pulling information from it without consulting a book -- whether you are a beginner, novice or experienced reader.  Please bring a deck that you'd like to work with; to facilitate the ease of group understanding, the instructor requests that you bring a deck that follows the structure or of the Rider-Waite deck. (If you have any questions about whether your chosen deck is appropriate, please email Kathy at kbiehl@empowermentunlimited.net in advance).

        

Kathy Biehl uses the symbolism of the Tarot and astrology to help her clients understand   themselves, their options and the people in their lives. Her connection to the Tarot began   in her mid-teens, when her mother unexpectedly gave her a deck after an otherwise ordinary day of high school. Since then she has been an avid collector and professional reader and developed a distinctive methodology that she has has been teaching for more than 25 years. In a parallel life she is an attorney and author.  Her website is EmpowermentUnlimited.net.

Tabitha Vevers show!

Tabitha Vevers  "Shiva (The Art of Survival)"  2011

I've been a fan of Tabitha Vevers for a while now, ever since I first laid eyes on her gold leafed paintings of proto-people in her Eden series.  She and the also wonderful Jane Smaldone have a show of their new work up now through October 30th at Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA.  Crustacean eroticism and ocular flowers - what's not to love?  There will be a reception this Saturday the 15th from 4-6pm.  Wish I could go.

Jesse Gelaznik

Jesse Gelaznik and Todd Brooks

Jesse Gelaznik is a colored pencil mage.  It's rare to see esoteric images rendered with such sensitivity and delicacy of hand.  I was hard pressed choosing just one picture of his to highlight, but I ended up with this one from the Majikian's Tarot he created with Todd Brooks.  The whole set is strange and beautiful, so be sure to check it out.

Juan Gatti

Juan Gatti  2011

My heart is literally racing as I type this.  Juan Gatti's collages are exceptionally lush and grand, and contain so many of my favorite elements: old biology diagrams, exotic beasts, mythical allusions, and a prismatic color palette.  His new show, Ciencia Naturales, is up at Madrid's LA FRESH GALLERY now through October 21st.  I truly cannot stop looking at his work.  Feeling woozy.

Via

Night Scented Stock show

Maya Deren "Meshes of the Afternoon" film still 1943

According to the press release, Night Scented Stock is a group show curated by Todd Levin which contains works of artists who "...engage the phantasmagoric impulse..."  Sign me up.  The exhibition is at Marianne Boesky's uptown gallery, and can be viewed through Oct 22nd.  The show roster reads like a tally of my personal hero(in)es, and includes Leonora Carrington, Ithel Colquhoun, Joseph Cornell, Leonor Fini, Hannah Hoch, Rene Magritte, and Dortha Tanning, amongst many others:

NIGHT SCENTED STOCK Curated by Todd Levin

Marianne Boesky Gallery
118 East 64th Street
New York, NY


“….as soon as the light fails the limp plant stiffens, the leaves become firm, the flowers rise up and expand; the whole plant acquires a kind of modest beauty and the bloom pours forth its delicious scent, which is wafted many yards away.” -Gertrude Jekyll, 19th century British garden designer

Marianne Boesky Gallery proudly presents Night Scented Stock, a group exhibition exploring the myriad stratagems artists employ to engage the phantasmagoric impulse in their work. While subject matter in this exhibition spans a wide gambit from the grotesque to the bucolic, each artist’s unique creation incites our imagination with furtive potency recalling the nocturnal flower from which this exhibition takes its name. Once dusk falls and moonlight breathes life into its withered limbs, the Night Scented Stock emits an intoxicating aroma which lures a panoply of the night’s creatures – insects, bats, moths and birds –with its mysterious scent.

Due to its spellbinding grip over this varied group of nocturnal animals ranging from delicate to menacing, the Night Scented Stock prompts associations with the fantastic and occult. For this reason, British composer/singer Kate Bush named a song for this flower on her 1980 album Never for Ever. Of the album’s eleven tracks, “Night Scented Stock” is the most orphic and mystifying. Lasting just 51 seconds, Bush’s synthesizer drone morphs into layered liturgical chant that is simultaneously angelic and haunting. Like the flower’s scent, this transient song seems to exist more comfortably in our imagination than reality. To that end, artist Nick Price portrayed Bush on the album’s cover in a state of hallucinatory ecstasy as a cornucopia of beautiful and terrifying creatures swell from underneath her billowing dress. Bush stated Price’s cover “...takes us on an intricate journey of our emotions: inside gets outside, as we flood people and things with our desires and problems....then it's for you to bring them to life...”

Like Bush’s album cover and her songs, the artworks included in Night Scented Stock all share an otherworldliness that is peculiar and fantastic, yet somehow recognizable. Charting the phantasmagoric impulse over 500 years, this exhibition looks at artists’ use of themes such as religion, decay, transformation, and even abstraction as vehicles to deliver the fantastic and incite both their and our imaginations. Throughout art history, be it in the martyrdom woodcuts of Albrecht Durer, the inner landscapes of Pavel Tchelitchew, or Anj Smith’s mystic dystopias caught between decay and chrysalis, artists have consciously imparted an elusive aura in their work that suspends it somewhere between fantasy and reality. In walking this line between the demonstrative and the ambiguous, artists leave an inhabitable space for our invention. Like the Night Scented Stock, their works have a mysterious pull on both the beautiful and malefic thoughts that flutter in our minds.

Night Scented Stock will open on September 14 at Marianne Boesky Gallery’s uptown space, located at 118 East 64th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, October 22nd. For further information or images please contact Claire Pauley at claire@marianneboeskygallery.com or 212-680-9889.


Artist List

Hans Henning Voigt (Alastair)
Diana Al-Hadid
David Altmejd
Jan Arp
Richard Artschwager
Anne Bachelier
Hans Baldung
Matthew Barney
Hans Bellmer
Lynda Benglis
Ashley Bickerton
Ronald Bladen
Louise Bourgeois
Pier Paolo Calzolari
Leonora Carrington
Lewis Carroll
Federico Castellon
Colette
Ithel Colquhoun
Joseph Cornell
Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder
Bryan Crockett
John Currin
Alfred Daguet
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Jay DeFeo
Maya Deren
Olivier de Sagazan
Louise Despont
Albrecht Durer
Robert Elfgen
James Ensor
M.C. Escher
Rachel Feinstein
Leonor Fini
Frank Frazetta
Gunther Gerzso
H.R. Giger
Francisco Goya
J. J. Grandville
Sheila Hicks
Hannah Hoch
Rebecca Horn
George Hugnet
Erika Giovanna Klien
Gustav Klimt
Jonathan Lasker
Kate MacDowell
René Magritte
Ken Matsubara
Donald Moffett
Michele Oka Doner
Tony Oursler
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Lari Pittman
Beccy Ridsdel
Robert Riggs
Felicien Rops
Aurel Schmidt
Donna Sharrett
Anj Smith
Paul Stankard
Dorothea Tanning
Lenore Tawney
Pavel Tchelitchew
Elizabeth Turk
Richard Tuttle
Follower of Hendrick van Cleve III
Weegee
Steve Wheeler
Hannah Wilke
Joel Peter Witkin
Adolf Wölfli
Unica Zurn

My head is seriously spinning!  Can't wait to see this -- and many thanks to Rene Lynch for the heads up.

Michael Robinson

Michael Robinson

Michael Robinson is perhaps best known as a graphic and web designer.  I discovered his work myself by clicking around to see who was responsible for the lovely Reality Sandwich site.  I subsequently fell in love with the fine art pieces he created for his project, Universus, which he describes simply enough:

Universus is a fine art based exploration of symbols and alphabets.
The work featured here consists of Flags, Silk Screens, and Wearable pieces.

Feels ancient and post-modern at once.  Would love to see more.