Surreal Salon IV stirs the imagination
This world flows Dali-style through the imagination, filling vacuums in the brain with thoughts that anything is possible.
And it is in Baton Rouge Gallery’s Surreal Salon IV exhibit, where artists’ works dare to ask the question, “What if?”
What if the characters in Caravaggio’s painting “Judith Beheading Holofernes” were sea monkeys instead of people.
Yes, sea monkeys, creatures that were popular in comic advertisements in the 1960s and ’70s. Purchase a pack of crystal eggs, the advertisement said, then drop the eggs into an aquarium.
Then watch them hatch and grow.
Sea monkeys were portrayed as smiling characters with three antennae, but the characters in Robyn Alatorre’s painting “Strange Tricks My Sea Monkeys Learned” are far from happy. In fact, there’s horror on the face of the creature whose neck is beneath the sword.
Just as there is on Holofernes’ face in Caravaggio’s painting.
But at the same time, you can’t help smiling at the horror in Alatorre’s painting. It’s a parody painted in the seriousness of Caravaggio’s style that makes it even funnier.
Really? Sea monkeys?
“It’s definitely humorous,” Jason Andreasen said. “A lot of the artwork in the show is filled with humor. That’s part of the movement.”
Andreasen is the gallery’s executive director. He speaks of the pop surrealist art genre, the focus of Surreal Salon IV . The show is a juried national exhibit that runs through Thursday, Jan. 26, and features 64 works by more than 50 artists.
“This is the fourth year for the show, and it’s our biggest ever,” Andreasen said. “We had more than 325 submissions.”
Juror Casey Weldon had the responsibility of whittling that number down into the 64 chosen pieces, many of which were from Louisiana.
“That’s the great thing about this show,” Andreasen said. “The juror doesn’t know who the artist is or where they’re from. All he sees is the artwork. And it’s great to discover that this art genre is growing in Louisiana. We have a lot of great artists doing this kind of work, and many of them are from this area.”
Weldon lives in Southern California. His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States, and featured in such publications as Juxtapose Magazine and Hi-Fructose, key publications for pop surrealism. Vanity Fair’s Italian edition also has featured Weldon’s work.
Weldon will be the speaker at Baton Rouge Gallery’s ARTiculate series at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, the day following the gallery’s Surreal Soiree, the annual costumed party coinciding with the exhibit.
Weldon’s lecture is free. Tickets to the soiree are $15.
But the artwork takes center stage, filling gallery walls with otherworldly ideas, all finding ways to make the impossible possible.
“When you hear the word ‘surrealism,’ most people think of Salvador Dali, but he really came later in the movement,” Andreasen said before the opening of last year’s exhibit. “Surrealism is really a dead movement that started in the ’20s. Now we’re seeing a new movement on the East and West coasts called pop surrealism or contemporary surrealism. It’s sometimes called pop pluralism and low-brow art, and its artists are sort of rebellious. There’s a lot of influence from graffiti art. Sometimes you’ll see pop culture images incorporated into their work.”
But it’s all in fun, and the artist’s rebellion is partly found in their shunning of galleries and receptions. They don’t take themselves too seriously.
So, the Baton Rouge Gallery brings this movement from the coasts through this exhibition. Still, the gallery isn’t trying to present a surreal show in the strictest sense of the word.
“To my knowledge, we’re the only area venue that features a national exhibit in this genre,” Andreasen said. “It’s always interesting to see what we’re going to get.”
Surreal Salon isn’t limited to paintings, sculpture or photographs, though these media are plentiful.
Video installations also are a part of the show.
This year, an installation by David Sinaguglia, Windsor, Conn., was chosen. He calls it “Rock of Gibraltar,” and it’s basically a looped video of a man pulling a dining table with a rope along a rocky path.
The table is completely set with china, silverware and candlesticks. Everything shakes on each pull, but only a few things fall off along the way, a knife here, a fork there.
Then there’s Andreasen’s favorite in the show — a drawing by Andrew K. Curry of Fort Worth, Texas.
The piece is titled “Defend this Street,” showing a line of policemen wearing helmets and holding shields.
Among them stands Sesame Street’s Big Bird, his smile as big as ever.
Is he there to do his part in defense? Or is he simply asking, “What’s there to defend?”
That’s for the viewer to decide. This is the most fun, really. Viewers’ imaginations begin working in overdrive upon entering this world. The show almost forces them to ask, “What if?” And sometimes, “If only.”
Now, not all humor here is light. Harken back Alatorre’s painting of sea monkeys at the beginning of the show. Yes, the lady sea monkey cutting off the head of the man sea monkey in the style of Caravaggio definitely can be classified as dark humor.
Really, for everyone who remembers those advertisements for sea monkeys will find this painting hysterically funny.
Because it, too, asks the question of “What if?”
Now, truth be known, sea monkeys are really brine shrimp, but what if they weren’t? What if they really lived in a mystical world of their own, where they studied Caravaggio’s paintings?
And from there, Alatorre shows you, “Strange Tricks My Sea Monkeys Learned.”
Artists: Robyn Alatorre, Redondo Beach, Calif.; Joshua Banks, Denton, Texas; Jessica Beauvais, Baton Rouge; Dana Buehler, New Orleans; Alea Bone, Portland, Ore.; Megan Buccere, Zachary; John Michael Byrd, Sunderland, Mass.; Rachel Caldwell, Spring City, Pa.; Victor Chalfant, Fayetteville, Ark.; Joshua Chambers, Ruston; Nicholas Coroneos, Santa Barbara, Calif.; Andrew K. Currey, Fort Worth, Texas; Archer Dougherty, Albuquerque, N.M.; Pat Doyen, Baton Rouge; Steven Eckert, Baton Rouge; M.C. Farris, Edinburg, Texas; Megan Frauenhoffer, Springfield, Mo.; Christopher Gideon, Royal Oak, Mich.; Amy Guidry, Lafayette; Glenna Hartwell, North Wales, Pa.; Richard Alan Haugh, Gulfport, Miss.; Eric Hudgins, Shelbyville, Ind.; Mike Jacobs, Cincinnati, Ohio; Amanda James, Baton Rouge; Ben Johnson, Cicero, Ind.; Susannah Kelly, Portland, Ore.; Ty Kelly, Livingston, Mont.; Mindy Kober, Houston, Texas; Audra Kohout, New Orleans; Amy Kollar Anderson, Dayton, Ohio; Victor LeBlanc, Denham Springs; Zane Mahanna, Hays, Kan.; Chase Markovich, New Orleans; Johnathan Martel, Lake Charles; Gina Martynova, New York City; Dustin Myers, Fullerton, Calif.; Kyle Nugent, New Orleans; Neil Perry, Portland, Ore.; Pat Phillips, Lafayette; Angela Piehl, Stillwater, Okla.; Nathan Pietrykowski, Baton Rouge; Arabella Proffer, Cleveland, Ohio; Frank Ramme, Ontario, Calif.; Beth Robinson, Lorane, Ore.; Isaac Sandoval, Hays, Kan.; David Sinaguglia, Windsor, Conn.; Cuyler Smith, Irvine, Calif.; Sarah Stupak, Dillonvale, Ohio; Vickie Suplee, Baton Rouge; Caroline Thomas, New Orleans; Yuki Toy, Los Angeles; Dawn Turner, Madison, Wis.; Terence Ulrich, Ventura, Calif.; Dustin Waltke, Hendersonville, Tenn.