Dreamscapes: Art and Design, a group exhibition featuring work by fine and decorative artists with a surrealist slant, opens at Ghostprint Gallery on Thursday, June 6th. The aim of surrealism, as described by Andre Breton in the first Surrealist Manifesto, was “the future resolution of … dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality.” To this end, surrealist works often incorporate bizarre juxtapositions between objects that seemingly have no relationship to each other.
Dreamscapes: Art and Design, a group exhibition featuring work by fine and decorative artists with a surrealist slant, opens at Ghostprint Gallery on Thursday, June 6th. The aim of surrealism, as described by Andre Breton in the first Surrealist Manifesto, was “the future resolution of … dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality.” To this end, surrealist works often incorporate bizarre juxtapositions between objects that seemingly have no relationship to each other.
Josh George, A Star for Each of Us, mixed media on panel, 23 1/2 x 11 1/2 in
Geraldine Duskin, the curator of the show, believes that Ghostprint gravitates towards the surrealist aesthetic because of the mystery that the work presents to the public. “I find that the dream analysis, the collective unconscious, that’s very prevalent in the art that we like and tend to show,” said Duskin. “We mainly show figurative art because it’s more expressive of those sort of thoughts and ideas and imagination.”
As a whole, Dreamscapes reflects Duskin’s interests in the art of the surrealists and other forms of art that encourage multiple interpretations, as well as concepts taken from Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, which involves detailed interpretations of dreams and examination of archetypes taken from the collective human unconscious.
Juan Perdiguero, Mujer Arbol, mixed media on photo-emulsion, 28 x 66 1/2 in
Dreamscapes, a group show, will feature the work of quite a few artists from both the Richmond area and elsewhere. The late Nancy Witt, a painter who was based in the Ashland area, is one of the more noteworthy artists included in the show. The gallery’s acquisition of her painting Quetzacoatl helped transform Dreamscapes into a show focused on experimentation with interior space and aesthetic mystery. Witt was a self-proclaimed meta-realist whose works have been compared to Réne Magritte. Her aesthetic is interpreted as an expression of where the conscious and unconscious meet. The best way for her work to be described is as hypnagogic images–images formed while phasing in and out of sleep.
In addition to Witt, the exhibition will also include work from artists who have had previous exhibitions with Ghostprint Gallery, including local artists Catherine Brooks and Josh George as well as Spanish artist Juan Perdiguero and South African artist Alicia Suarez. Glass works by VCU alumni Sibelle Yuksek, Catherine Kim, and Sean Donlon will also appear, as will work by Richmond-area decorative artists Catherine Roseberry, Maurice Beane, and Harrison Higgins. Painter Sean Wu and photographer Jeremy Witt are also included in the exhibit.
Nancy Witt, Quetzacoatl, oil on linen, 34 x 26 in
Maurice Beane, Twig Table, forged steel, gold leaf, marble
Architectural Head
All curators invest something of themselves into their exhibits, making them partially a personal expression. For Duskin, whose main artistic focus is interior design, the collaboration with artists from both near and faraway locales to present a surrealist exhibition creates a sort of collective unconsciousness between herself and these artists, which combines to create the thought-provoking presentation that is Dreamscapes: Art And Design. Speaking of the artists that she hopes to bring to the public’s consciousness through this exhibition, Duskin said, “There’s a mystery to them because they kind of mix up the two worlds. It’s more about what’s happening internally. To me, that is great art.”
Dreamscapes: Art and Design opens at Ghostprint Gallery on Thursday, June 6th with an invitational reception, followed by a First Friday opening reception on June 7th. The exhibit will remain on public display until July 27, 2013. Ghostprint Gallery is located at 220 W. Broad St. For more information, and to see how Dreamscapes coincides with Duskin’s interior design work, check out their website: www.ghostprintgallery.com
By Brian Charlton
Top Image: Catherine Brooks, Prometheus, oil on panel, 101/2 x 13 1/2 in
