Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists MARCH 14 - APRIL 12, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 14, 8 - 11 PM Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday 12-5pm (March 15 - April 12) - click here to view artwork from the show - Dabora Gallery and Phantasmaphile's Pam Grossman are proud to usher in the spring season with the group show "Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists," on view from March 14th through April 12th, 2009. In literal terms, a fata morgana is a mirage or illusion, a waking reverie, a shimmering of the mind. Named for the enchantress Morgan le Fay, these tricks of perception conjure up a sense of glimpsing into another world, whether it be the expanses of an ethereal terrain, or the twilit depths of the psyche. The artists of "Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists" deftly utilize the semiotics of mysticism, fantasy, and the subconscious in their work, thereby guiding the viewer through heretofore uncharted realms - alternately shadowy or luminous, but always inventive. Yoko Ono recently said, "I think all women are witches, in the sense that a witch is a magical being." Each artist in this show is a sorceress in her own right. Endowed with fecund imaginations and masterful craftsmanship, their work transforms the viewer: we become spellbound, bearing witness to their attempts to reconcile the desire for a diurnal beauty with the lure of a lush and riotous inner wilderness. The fantastical is counterpoint to the ferocious, the monstrous to the marvelous. Allusions to myth and metamorphosis abound, as these works channel their own heroine spirits and tell their own secret tales. Here, frame is magic threshold, bidding us to take a breath, and cross over. Participating Artists Carrie Ann Baade is an oil painter with the eye of a collagiste. Disparate images of varying scale are juxtaposed in her pictures, resulting in an opulent psychological phantasmagoria. Ms. Baade draws upon the visual cues of nightmares and 19th century spiritualism to depict the archetype of "the dark feminine". (Miami, FL) http://www.carrieannbaade.com Christina Dallas creates parlor photographs which are composed using handmade dolls as models. These make-believe portraits are taken in elaborate room settings and work on several levels: as playful, grotesque stagings as well as honest revelations of the hidden complexities that we carry within us as we grow from childhood and into our adult selves. (Brooklyn, NY) http://www.christinadallas.com Lori Field's painstaking encaustic technique results in cloudy, pastel-hued wonderscapes. The chimeric characters that populate her pieces are placid and contemplative, holding poses of mute beauty. Each work is further embellished with threading and small, embedded treasures, all hermetically sealed as if in amber. (Montclair, NJ) http://www.lorifieldfineart.com Katy Horan's work feels very folkloric, yet the "folk" in question are culturally ambiguous. The rituals in which her masked women partake are drawn from a combination of paganism and shamanism, as well as the aesthetics of domestic arts and textile crafts. This amalgam yields a tableau that seemingly transcends age, while having its own distinctively, potent charge. (Austin, TX) http://www.katyart.com Tina Imel takes inspiration from the corseted world of Victoriana and all of its pageantry. In her work, female restriction is counter-balanced by powerful imaginings and intensive psychological release, without shirking from either pain or prettiness. (Scranton, PA) http://www.tinaimel.com Susan Jamison's egg tempera paintings feature a rose-hued every-woman interfacing with nature. Her flesh is adorned with elaborate designs, suggesting sacred make-up fit for a mystery rite. Femininity and natural power are intricately tied together, as veins mimic vines, and animals silently bear witness. (Roanoke, VA) http://susanjamison.com Karena Karras uses the traditional tropes of the Surrealists to express her ideas about the correspondence between gender and power. Her female subjects are caught in moments of spiritual evolution, wherein boundaries between corpus and cosmos are blurred. (Chicago, IL) http://www.karenakarras.com The delicate drawings of Fay Ku belie a quiet ferocity. Her striking graphic sensibility and linear restraint are effective foils for the brute violence of the fairy tales to which she alludes. Pretty young girls partake in painful coming-of-age episodes and participate in disturbing acts which are at once comical and unsettling. (Brooklyn, NY) http://www.fayku.com For Adela Leibowitz, the past is rife with fantasies and horrors. Her paintings explore this tension via quasi-historical vignettes and a soft-hued palette that signifies a liminal dream space. Whether her mesmerized female protagonists are engaging in acts of submission or incendiary liberation remains up to the viewer to determine. (New York, NY) http://www.adelaleibowitz.com Rene Lynch's paintings depict adolescent girls engaging in moments of vague yet palpable sexual discovery. Trees with their entanglement of branches provide a veiled, insular world where these neophytes can undergo their covert exchanges and hushed transformations. (Brooklyn, NY) http://renelynch.com Alexis Mackenzie's collages look like perfect digital composites, but they are all in fact done by her own exacting hand. Black and white vintage ephemera and natural history book clippings are combined to create a medley of poetic, stream-of-consciousness associations between maidens and warriors, life and death. (San Francisco, CA) http://www.alexisanne.com Lynda Mahan's work is rendered in a photorealistic style, yet feels otherworldly - even underworldly. With a gothic bent and penchant for the pitchy side of the color spectrum, her images are like reflections as seen through a black mirror. (Brooklyn, NY) At first glance, Amy Ross' beguiling work holds its own in the naturalist cannon, alongside Karl Blossfeldt and Maria Sibylla Merian. Upon closer inspection however, one sees that her fine renderings are in fact Moreauvian crossbreeds of plants and wildlife. Whether seen as a commentary on genetic engineering, or else an homage to the mystery of biology's many permutations, these hybrids surprise and delight. (Boston, MA) http://www.amyross.com World renowned artist Judith Schaechter takes a departure from her award- winning stained glass technique to experiment with a more contemporary medium. Her digital work yields a seamless representation of her signature, disjointed narratives. Always texture-rich, hyper-patterned, and supersaturated with color, her fabricated world is one in which the macabre and the beautiful intermingle in compelling combinations. (Philadelphia, PA) http://www.judithschaechter.com Madeline von Foerster utilizes the ancient visual vocabulary of alchemy to communicate a timeless message. The chemical wedding or conjunctio is the Western version of the yin-yang, wherein male and female energies are put into perfect balance. The Latin phrase around her painting's border is an alchemical adage which translates roughly to, "Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying you will find the hidden stone." This metaphor for the excavation of the unconscious self is particularly apt in regard to the process the artist goes through to translate her own deep symbolic language into final works of art. (New York, NY) http://www.madelinevonfoerster.com About the Curator: Pam Grossman is the creator and editor of Phantasmaphile (www.phantasmaphile.com) 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 has also fostered rich relationships between Pam and numerous artists who have been promoted on the site. "Fata Morgana" is Pam's first curatorial effort. (opening reception serving complimentary absinthe courtesy of La Fee) Top of page image: Susan Jamison, "Tatting Tales", Egg tempera on panel, 2008 HOME