Phantasmaphile

Carrie Ann Baade show!

Carrie Ann Baade  "Lady or Tiger"

If you live in Philly or vicinity, you are in for a giant treat.  Carrie Ann Baade's new show, "Tales of Passion & Woe," just opened at the Rosenfeld Gallery, and will be up through March 28th.  Having seen Baade's work in person, I can sincerely say that she is one of the world's living masters.  Unbelievable technique paired with an infinite imagination is a lethal combo indeed, and I envy the lucky collectors who are able to scoop her work up now before it gets to the inevitable Mark Ryden price tier.

Susan Jamison exhibition

Susan Jamison  "Above the Pack"

I could not be more excited to announce that one of my very favorite artists ever, Susan Jamison, is having her first museum show at the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, Virginia.  The exhibition is called "Into the Forest," and is described thusly:

Taking inspiration from a variety of sources including fairy tales, Renaissance portraiture, and botanical illustration, Roanoke artist Jamison uses egg tempera to paint startling women adorned with vibrant pink embroidery patterns, medical illustrated diagrams. Hairless and free of clothing, they are surrounded by a cadre of flying birds, squirrels, albino deer, and domestic objects that reference culturally familiar stories and images. The results are neither erotic nor child-like, existing more like our dreams or memories. In Jamison's words, the animals and plants are carefully chosen for their symbolic meanings and lend the Snow White-like female figures a contemporary, feminist inspired point of view.

It opens today and will be up until May 30th, 2010.  Congratulations, Susan!

Nicomi 'Nix' Turner

Nicomi 'Nix' Turner

I think these gorgeous pagan-infused drawings by Nicomi 'Nix' Turner are perfect viewing for this odd, almost-Spring-yet-still-gray time period we're currently in.  Though they are so lush and abundant with their blooms and fecund maidens, there is something about graphite that always feels deliciously stark and whispery.  Can't get enough of this work right now.

Via

Mathieu Mondoux

Mathieu Mondoux

Mathieu Mondoux makes me appreciate the Goreyesque winter we've been having.  I love the balance of his bold graphic sensibility with his wonderful detailing.  His pieces remind me of old papercut works, but with a decidedly modern spin.  I would love to go for a wander in these strange digi-woods.

Caitlin Hackett

Caitlin Hackett  "lavender dik dik, no title" 

This lovely creature by Caitlin Hackett is my gift to you on this March Monday.  In person this drawing is 2.5 x 2.5 feet - can you imagine?  I look forward to the day when I can stand in front of her work and bask in its mythic majesty.

(Thanks, Samantha!)

Art&Ghosts

Art&Ghosts  "Lemonade Days"  2010

I've had quite the webcrush on Art&Ghosts for a while now, but it's Louise Robinson's latest body of work that has turned those feelings into full-on love.  What could be better than beast-headed girls in florid dresses and little red shoes?  As I look out at my window at yet another NYC snow storm, and then back to my screen, I'm reminded by these sweet creatures that spring is just around the corner.

TOMORROW: Entomologia Insect Art Show Opening at OBSERVATORY

 
ENTOMOLOGIA - A Group Show of Insect Art
February 26th - April 4th, 2010

Opening: Friday, February 26; 7:00 - 10:00pm
Hours: Thursdays and Fridays 3-6; Saturdays and Sundays 12-6;

OBSERVATORY and Curious Expeditions’ Michelle Enemark are delighted to announce “Entomologia,” a group show of art incorporating and inspired by insects, on view from February 26th through April 4th.

“Four years of hard work in the darkness, and a month of delight in the sun - such is the Cicada’s life. We must not blame him for the noisy triumph of his song. For four years he has dug the earth with his feet, and then suddenly he is dressed in exquisite raiment, provided with wings that rival the bird’s, and bathed in heat and light. What cymbals can be loud enough to celebrate his happiness, so hardly earned, and so very, very short?” -Jean Henri Fabre

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Jennifer Angus
Joianne Bittle
Catherine Chalmers
Joanna Ebenstein
Michelle Enemark
Judith Klausner
Barrett Klein
Shanna Maurizi
Herbert Pfostl
Brian Riley
Stacey Steers
Steve Thurston
James Walsh
Lisa Wood

ABOUT THE CURATOR:
Michelle Enemark is the creator of Curious Expeditions, a site devoted to traveling and exhuming the extraordinary past. Curious Expeditions was named a finalist for best travel blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards and received a 2009 Cliopatria Award. A motion graphics artist by trade, visual artist by training, and historian and naturalist by self appointment, Michelle aims to show the forgotten bits of the world, be they lost pieces of history, forgotten museums, or elements of the natural world that have been ignored or overlooked.

ADDITIONAL CURATION:
Jessica Oreck works as an animal keeper and docent at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. When not at the museum, Jessica spends her time inventing new ways to create a sense of wonder in the world. Jessica just finished her first feature documentary, “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo.” She is currently in production on several animated science shows, building her own museum exhibition, and pre-production for her next feature film, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga.

Daniel Higgs

Daniel Higgs  "Untitled"  2002

Daniel Higgs is perhaps best known as a musician via his band Lungfish and his recent more experimental solo work making occultish sounds with banjo and Jews harp.  However, it's his unbelievable fine art that's made me fall totally in love.  I am awed by the way his technique nods to the surrealist masters through both style and the use of magical tropes, yet still feels entirely fresh and totally unique.  I'm kicking myself that I missed his recent solo show, "The Hieroglyphic Ideal" at Mountain Fold Gallery last month, but at least it can be viewed online.  I also think I'm going to have to order myself a copy of his Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot album, as in addition to his music, it comes with a book of his paintings.  Far out.

(And thanks to Scott for the heads up.)

Last chance to see VISION QUEST

VISION QUEST comes down on Sunday, Feb 21st, so be sure to stop by today until 8pm or tomorrow between 12 and 6pm.  I'll be at the space myself for much of the weekend, so hope to see you there.

VISION QUEST – A Group Show of Neo-Shamanic Art

January 16th– February 21st, 2010

Click here to see images of the show

OBSERVATORY and Phantasmaphile’s Pam Grossman are proud to kick off 2010 with VISION QUEST, a group show of neo-shamanic art, on view from January 16th through February 21st.

A healer, a medicine (wo)man, a guide: the shaman is a figure who interfaces with nature magic and the invisible world at large, for the betterment of the tribe. Fluent in the language of symbols, and a perennial student of plant wisdom, the shaman is also a translator – bringing back messages from a place veiled thick with leaves, bones, smoke, ghosts.

This journey to the other side – to the innerside – is not just a flowery promenade of song and trance; of friendly animal spirits and ancestral reunions. For while this land is rife with vibrant, variegated beauty, it can also be a danger zone. Images of decapitation and dismemberment abound - though ultimately act as portents for personal transformation and rebirth. This shadowy terrain is trod only by those brave enough to encounter whatever may be found along the way, as each sojourn is mysterious, thoroughly unpredictable, and entirely individual. However, the results of the trip often prove invaluable, as the traveler returns armed with knowledge that will in turn illuminate and repair the community, and fortify his or her own soul.

While the role of the shaman has traditionally been fulfilled by experienced elders in indigenous groups spanning culture and time, VISION QUEST posits that our artists fit the bill as well. Today, with more of us living in an urban jungle rather than a real one, it has become all the more important to figure out ways to internalize the lessons of nature: its growth, its brilliant bloom, its death. And in an age of digitization and distraction, of wire vines and humming screens, it’s no wonder we long for deeper, more sensory experiences of self - with all of its darkness and divinity.

As such, each piece in VISION QUEST explores the archetype of the shamanic voyage, using the tools of paint, pencil, or paper in lieu of fire, flower, feather. Taken together this work represents a full spectrum of what it means to go underground and out of body; to go there and come back again, perhaps just a little bit wiser or, at the very least, more wide awake.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Jesse Bransford

William Crump

Scott Gursky

Juliet Jacobson

Ashley Lande

Adela Leibowitz

Jason Leinwand

Christopher Mir

Joe Newton

Herbert Pfostl

Christopher Reiger

Christine Shields

Erika Somogyi

Jessie Rose Vala

ABOUT THE CURATOR
Pam Grossman is the creator and editor of Phantasmaphile, the premiere online destination for art aficionados with a passion for the surreal and the fantastical. An internationally beloved art and culture web log, it features daily spotlights on artists and events, as well as interviews with such visual luminaries as Thomas Woodruff, Nils Karsten, and Richard A. Kirk. Phantasmaphile was written up two years in a row on the Manhattan User’s Guide Top 400 New York Sites list, and Grossman’s previous show, “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantastists” was featured by myriad taste-making outlets including Juxtapoz, Arthur, Upper Playground, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter page. VISION QUEST is her latest curatorial effort, and she is proud to have it hanging at OBSERVATORY, the art and events space she co-founded.

DIRECTIONS TO OBSERVATORY: ***PLEASE USE NEVINS ST./PROTEUS GOWANUS ENTRANCE***
Observatory is located at 543 Union Street at Nevins St., in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. The entrance is currently through Proteus Gowanus gallery, in the alley off Nevins St (see below for full details).

R or M train to Union Street in Brooklyn:

Walk two long blocks on Union (towards the Gowanus Canal) to Nevins Street. 543 Union Street is the large red brick building on right. Go right on Nevins and left down alley through large black gates. Proteus Gowanus is the second door on the left.

F or G train to Carroll Street:

Walk one block to Union. Turn right, walk two long blocks on Union towards the Gowanus Canal, cross the bridge, take left on Nevins, go down the alley to Proteus Gowanus, the second door on the left.

observatoryroom.org

Steven Tabbutt

Steven Tabbutt  "Bright Paper Shaman" 

Yes, yes I know I've been shaman-obsessed of late.  So thank you for indulging me as I post this piece by the miraculous Steven Tabbutt.  Besides the subject matter, I love Tabbutt's confidence with line and color.  There are so many different patterns and rendering styles packed into his work, it's amazing how harmonious the overall effect is. 

Via

Wendy S. Rolfe

Wendy S. Rolfe  "Ordinary Magic"  2008

Wendy S. Rolfe paints opulent, fantastical vignettes on curved panels that feel baroque and surreal at once.  She often includes little quotes or messages in them as well, which makes the experience of viewing them even more like a discovery - or like decoding some sort of richly designed riddle.  You can see her work in person now at Tria Gallery in NYC alongside Holly Sears in their two person show "Dream Awake."  It's up until March 6th, so be sure to check it out.

(Thanks, Ted!)

Paco Pomet

Paco Pomet  "Storytelling"  2008

I think Paco Pomet is a genius.  He paints with this amazing blend of gritty realism and sneaky fantasia that is near impossible to pull off well - in fact the only others who do something similar that immediately come to mind are Eric White and Wednesday Kirwan.  It's tricksy, beautifully complex work that makes you do a double-take.  Most impressive.

(Thanks, Freemonster!)

Slash: Paper Under the Knife exhibition

Michael Velliquette  "Power Tower"  2009

This weekend, I had the immense pleasure of seeing the Slash: Paper Under the Knife exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design.  As the name implies, the show consists of over 50 pieces made almost entirely out of paper, and created by an impressive mix of international artists.  Some old favorites are to be found here, including Rob Ryan, Andrea Deszo, and Su Blackwell.  And I fell in love with plenty of new discoveries, such as Michael Velliquette, above.  It is so inspiring to see paper, such a humble and ubiquitous material, elevated and repurposed to create jawdropping, imaginative, and often highly moving work.  It just goes to show that one needn't have the most expensive or rarest materials to make art.  With enough skill and discipline, you too, can make a giant rainbow totem pole to illicit technicolor prayers of awe and thanks from the crowds.

Slash is up until April 4th, and is absolutely not to be missed.

(And big thank you to the bunches of you who recommended I go see this.)

Jason Leinwand

Jason Leinwand  "Releasing an Inner Serpent G-d"  2007

Jason Leinwand is one of my favorite recent discoveries of the past year.  I dig him so much in fact that I chose one of his pieces to be the promo image for my current group show VISION QUEST (up til Feb 21st so go see it soon!  Plug end.)  What's amazing about his work is that while it looks super neat as a jpeg, it is absolutely mind. blow. ing. in person.  This is because each piece is made up of layer upon layer of collaged colored paper elements, all obsessively cut out and arranged in mesmerizing mandala-like patterns.  You have to see this stuff, for real.  I am also crazy about the way he blends pop cultural references with mystic iconography.  Get a load of his artist statement:

    ...I make collage because it is simple, involves repetitive actions, directs structure, and is unforgiving.

I imagine a relationship to Color, upon first sight, cannot be much different from experiencing the divine; a kaleidoscopic lure of light and warmth. An invitation to explore this light inevitably leads to the discovery of a Darkness. Through color, my work examines Hindu, Buddhist and Shamanic themes where the acceptance of this Darkness or Fear can lead to higher realms of consciousness and new states of being. This pairing of Color with Darkness becomes the focus of collaged meditations aimed at a better understanding of the Self and a means to conquer Fears.

My work is about Being. Bright, colorful, paper collages functioning as the Mandala or the Yantra: a meditational tool aimed at self-discovery, spiritual awakening, and devotion to the Divine Being. Navigating Consciousness through laser beams, Shakti, and joy. Confronting Fear by maintaining a rigorous process, Kali, and death. Experiencing Harmony from symmetry, UFO’s, and the cosmos. Densely layered patterns, shapes, and line hold together deep, symmetrical spaces where mind and body potential is revealed and explored. In either case, an attempt to create a magic Sacred Space where our primordial questions about Being, co-exist with comic books, science fiction, Timothy Leary and Terrance McKenna. A magic Sacred Space where the divine mother goddess can just as easily caress and nurture you as ferociously rip your face off.

So, so awesome.

Hanna von Goeler show!

Hanna von Goeler

The fantabulous Hanna von Goeler has a new show up at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ called "The Currency of an Altered State."  I just love the idea of using money as canvas, and transforming it into something otherworldly and beautiful.  It's an interesting way to explore the relationship between art and commerce, and it sets my imagination afire.

Ted Enik

Ted Enik  "The Hanged Man: The Circle"

I was lucky enough to meet Ted Enik at the VISION QUEST opening last month, and he mentioned he was an illustrator.  He is currently dividing his time between working on awesome children's books and doing the art for a new tarot set called The Witches Altar:

The Witches Altar Cards are unexpected, eclectic still lifes depicting symbolic altars. Each card corresponds to a traditional tarot card. However, unlike any other deck, they are laid out as horizontal vignettes - personal altars created from household and ritual objects. The power of the deck can be drawn upon in two different ways; practical or oracular, familiar or mysterious.  

By placing an Altar Card before him/her, each individual shrine will invite the seeker to enter.  Through detailed imagery and rich symbolism, an Altar Card will stimulate the imagination and open the seeker’s mind to a meditative journey.

Sounds fabulous doesn't it?  I am crazy about Enik's beautifully detailed illustrations for it (please click on the image above to see it in all its glory).  Can't wait until the set is released. 

Jauneth Skinner

Jauneth Skinner 

Jauneth Skinner's drawings make my hair stand on end, and I mean that as a compliment.  It's rare to find work that feels ambiguously unsettling or uncanny, without being over the top.  But Skinner is gorgeously restrained, and it's that mystery that elevates her work.  Plus, it just looks cool.

Via

Hayv Kahraman

 

Hayv Kahraman  "Flayed Lamb"  2008               

It's not every day one encounters an artist who seems to have invented her own visual style, but I think Hayv Kahraman has done just that.  Born in Baghdad and trained in Florence, she so beautifully weaves together her various influences and paints vignettes that feel like a graceful mixture of Persian, Japanese, and Italian parables.  It's culture mashing at its best, because it feels entirely new and is totally breathtaking. 

Via

Carmen Lozar

Carmen Lozar  "Reliquary for My Everyday III"  2007

Please do yourself a favor and check out everything by Carmen Lozar.  Her glass sculptures look like frozen fables, or tiny, solidified dreams.  I am simply crazy about all of them, and had the darndest time choosing which one to share with you here. 

Via

Josh Peters

Josh Peters  "Echoes"  2008

I am loving Josh Peters' loose, mystic paintings so much.  It was tricky choosing which one to highlight, as a lot of his other work has a wonderfully powerful, primal feel to it.  But this piece won out, due to its beautiful rainbow palette and holy haze.  It feels like catching someone (or several someones) in a completely unselfconscious moment of reverie and reverence.  Splendid.

Inka Essenhigh show!

Inka Essenhigh  "Green Goddess I"  2009

I had to wipe the drool from my mouth the first time I read this description of Inka Essenhigh's show opening on the 23rd at 303 Gallery here in NYC:

303 Gallery is pleased to present our third exhibition of new paintings by Inka Essenhigh. The artist’s latest body of work touches on notions proffered by 18th century Romanticist William Blake, who wrote, “Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”

The ostensible subject of the paintings is landscape, the natural world. The paintings’ lush backdrops (most directly drawn from her studio in coastal Maine) are rendered almost 3-dimensionally, bathed in a celestial light that gives the scenarios a hazy, hypnagogic quality. Yet the work is imbued with a sense of the hidden spirits revealed by profound communion with one’s surroundings. Anthropomorphic figures drift in and out of perception, as Essenhigh creates visionary epsiodes of realization and engagement with the spirit world...

Can't wait to see these in person.  Show's up until February 20th, so you should go, too.

(Thanks, Mom!) 

Doug Gordon

Doug Gordon  "Candy Corp Cavalcade!"

Doug Gordon's work is so bizarre and twisted that I just have to smile when I look at it.  It's like viewing someone's childhood gone terribly, wonderfully wrong.  Delish.

VISION QUEST opening party TOMORROW!

VISION QUEST – A Group Show of Neo-Shamanic Art

Opening:  Saturday, January 16th, 2010 (THAT'S TOMORROW)   7-10pm

On View:  January 17th– February 21st, 2010

Hours:  Thursdays & Fridays 3-6pm; Saturdays & Sundays 12-6pm

Brooklyn, NY -  OBSERVATORY and Phantasmaphile's Pam Grossman are proud to kick off 2010 with VISION QUEST, a group show of neo-shamanic art, on view from January 16th through February 21st. 

A healer, a medicine (wo)man, a guide:  the shaman is a figure who interfaces with nature magic and the invisible world at large, for the betterment of the tribe.  Fluent in the language of symbols, and a perennial student of plant wisdom, the shaman is also a translator – bringing back messages from a place veiled thick with leaves, bones, smoke, ghosts.  

This journey to the other side – to the innerside – is not just a flowery promenade of song and trance; of friendly animal spirits and ancestral reunions.  For while this land is rife with vibrant, variegated beauty, it can also be a danger zone.  Images of decapitation and dismemberment abound - though ultimately act as portents for personal transformation and rebirth.  This shadowy terrain is trod only by those brave enough to encounter whatever may be found along the way, as each sojourn is mysterious, thoroughly unpredictable, and entirely individual.  However, the results of the trip often prove invaluable, as the traveler returns armed with knowledge that will in turn illuminate and repair the community, and fortify his or her own soul.

While the role of the shaman has traditionally been fulfilled by experienced elders in indigenous groups spanning culture and time, VISION QUEST posits that our artists fit the bill as well.  Today, with more of us living in an urban jungle rather than a real one, it has become all the more important to figure out ways to internalize the lessons of nature: its growth, its brilliant bloom, its death.  And in an age of digitization and distraction, of wire vines and humming screens, it’s no wonder we long for deeper, more sensory experiences of self - with all of its darkness and divinity. 

As such, each piece in VISION QUEST explores the archetype of the shamanic voyage, using the tools of paint, pencil, or paper in lieu of fire, flower, feather.  Taken together this work represents a full spectrum of what it means to go underground and out of body; to go there and come back again, perhaps just a little bit wiser or, at the very least, more wide awake. 


PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Jesse Bransford
William Crump
Scott Gursky
Juliet Jacobsen
Ashley Lande
Adela Leibowitz
Jason Leinwand
Christopher Mir
Joe Newton
Herbert Pfostl
Christopher Reiger
Christine Shields
Erika Somogyi
Jessie Rose Vala

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Pam Grossman is the creator and editor of Phantasmaphile, the premiere online destination for art aficionados with a passion for the surreal and the fantastical.  An internationally beloved art and culture web log, it features daily spotlights on artists and events, as well as interviews with such visual luminaries as Thomas Woodruff, Nils Karsten, and Richard A. Kirk.  Phantasmaphile was written up two years in a row on the Manhattan User’s Guide Top 400 New York Sites list, and Grossman’s previous show, “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists,” was featured by myriad taste-making outlets including Juxtapoz, Arthur, Upper Playground, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter page.  “VISION QUEST” is her latest curatorial effort, and she is proud to have it hanging at OBSERVATORY, the art and events space she co-founded.


ABOUT THE GALLERY

OBSERVATORY is an art and events space in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.  Founded in February 2009 and run by a group of seven artists and bloggers, the space seeks to present programming inspired by the 18th century notion of “rational amusement” and is especially interested in topics residing at the interstices of art and science, history and curiosity, magic and nature.  The space hosts screenings, lectures, classes, and exhibitions, and is part of the Proteus Gowanus art complex.  It is located at 543 Union Street (at Nevins), and is accessed through Proteus Gowanus Gallery’s entrance.  OBSERVATORY’s gallery hours are 3-6pm on Thursdays and Fridays; and 12-6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

For press, media, or sales inquiries, please contact Pam Grossman:  phantasmaphile [at] gmail.com

Peter Schuyff

Peter Schuyff 

Who could resist Peter Schuyff's "Paintings on Found Paintings" series?  Certainly pas moi.  It amazes me how he gets the shadow and light of his shapes just right, so they look like they are hovering perfectly over the image.  It's tricksy, it's irreverent, and it's really really cool.

Via

Martine Johanna

Martine Johanna  "Deeper"

Goodness it was challenging to choose a piece of Martine Johanna's to post here.  She is equally talented at painting and drawing, and each piece of hers is charged with a potent combination of mythos and eros.  I chose this work, primarily because I'm a sucker for the all-seeing eye, as you probably noticed by now.  Also, I love the underwater element to it - a great visual metaphor for the secret pools of the psyche.

Via