Surrealism

Latest news on surrealism

Eileen Agar: An Eye For Collage At Pallant House Gallery

Showcasing 60 years of the artist's work, this enthralling exhibition aims to prove there is more to Agar than just being a footnote in the history of Surrealism.

Surrealism Returns To Cheltenham Art Gallery And Museum

A host of intriguing images are on display at the Gloucestershire gallery as part of a new exhibition inspired by the county's 1938 exhibition Realism and Surrealism.

Michael Leddy on the unintentional surrealism of Hi and Lois

BB pal Michael Leddy told me that he has some real problems with contemporary Hi and Lois strips. I agree. The lousy art is filled with seemingly unintentional misrepresentations of reality that sometimes look like the surreal sets from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Michael said it's getting so bad that he thinks they may now be putting stuff in the strip just to screw with his head. Check out Michael's Orange Crate Art blog for many more examples. Hi and Lois crit on Orange Crate Art...

Video: Mark Ryden and Marion Peck short film

Artists Mark Ryden and Marion Peck, the dynamic duo of pop surrealism, made this dark, sweet, and strange short film Sweet Wishes. It's about a dolly, a baby, and a bear who are granted a wish. Peck and Ryden are also publishing a picture book based on the film. Sweet Wishes (Hi-Fructose)...

Roq La Rue's 10th Anniversary Show

Seattle's incredible Roq La Rue Gallery is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an extravaganza of Pop Surrealism. The 10th Anniversary Group show opens tomorrow and it will spank your eyeballs. Featured artists include: Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Femke Hiemstra, Brian Despain, Travis Louie, Scott Musgrove, Lisa Petrucci, Shag, Liz McGrath, Andrew Hem, Glenn Barr, John Brophy, Viktor Safonkin, Anthony Pontius, Tin, Kay Tuttle, Ronald Kurniawan, Chris Crites, Johnny Bergeron, Mia Araujo, Mike Leavitt, Christian Vanminnen, Gabe Marquez, and Lori Earley. (At top, Ryan Heshka's "Humants" (detail); above left, Mark Ryden's "Turkey Baby," above right, Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade's "Death Before Dishonor" sculpture; below Scott Musgrove's ""Great Lesser Plant Sampler- Extinct ca. 1877.") Congratulations, Kirsten Anderson!!! From the show description: Roq la Rue is ten years old! The gallery opened with a small gallery space in Belltown in the summer of 1998. Owner Kirsten Anderson had no previous gallery experience, but felt compelled to create a space where countercultural art could be seen and enjoyed in Seattle. At that time, there were only about 5 galleries in the world catering to a subversive new art movement tongue-in-cheekly called "Lowbrow", while ten years later there are almost too many to count, with a "Lowbrow/Pop Surrealist" gallery in almost every major city in the US and many major european cities. Since then, the gallery has hosted some of the world's most well known and regarded underground cartoonists and Pop Surrealists and is considered one of the top galleries world wide for the Pop Surrealism/ New Contemporary genre. (The "Lowbrow" moniker has since morphed into the term "Pop Surrealism" after the publication and success of the book "Pop Surrealism" published in 2004 by Last Gasp Books (selling 20,000 copies at last count) that Anderson compiled and edited.) In addition to hosting approximately 110 openings, the gallery has moved four times over the past decade, finally ending at it's largest and most posh digs yet in the Belltown neighborhood. For our anniversary exhibition we asked a host of artists artists to participate. Some are old favorites, some are vibrant new talents the gallery is thrilled to have brought on board. All share the technical excellence and rapacious imagination that characterizes the artistic vision Roq La Rue has striven to promote over the past decade. Online preview of Roq La Rue 10th Anniversary Show...

Gallery: Surreal to Sublime, Wired.com Readers' Geekiest ASCII Art

: We asked for ASCII, and you delivered. Two weeks ago, Wired.com launched an art contest inspired by our gallery, "Art and ASCII: The Stories Behind All Those Brackets, Slashes and Carets." Thanks to all you keyboard art experts, we got dozens of entries that blew our minds. To help us judge the contest, we solicited the help of two ASCII art experts from Japan, entrepreneur Osamu Higuchi and online media expert Ichiroo Kiyota. The votes are in, and the winner is John AuCoin of Texas, who submitted this drawing of the Creation of Adam. Congrats John -- we'll have some Wired.com swag headed your way momentarily. Click through to see other geeky ASCII creations, from pop culture stars to robots. Creation of Adam By John AuCoin of Houston The judges said: "This is an orthodox piece of work with a Japanese manga-esque touch." AuCoin claims this was the first time he ever tried ASCII art. Apparently he's a natural. : Astral Apple By Maija Haavisto of Helsinki, Finland Haavisto says: "In 2004 I got interested in surrealism in ASCII art and ever since I've drawn several surreal ASCII pieces. This is one of my own favorites. It was drawn for an Apple-themed demo party in 2006. I wanted to show that ASCII art was not just about animals and cartoon characters." : Tiger By Maija Haavisto of Helsinki, Finland Haavisto says: "I spent weeks tweaking every little detail of this picture. I like combining line art and so-called 'solid style' in the same piece for more lively results." : Scooter Girl By Piller Gregerson of Norfolk, Virginia Gregerson says: "It's a punk rock woman with a punk rock scooter!" : Servbot By Sadas Dasda, location unknown : Dwight By Sadas Dasda, location unknown : Giant Robots By Joseph Barrile of New York City Barrile says: "This piece is part of a collection of four ASCII Battle-Bots and the mad scientist who created them." : Battles show poster By Michael Tabie of Orlando, Florida Tabie says: "This is an ASCII art piece I created for a gig poster to promote a Battles show here in Orlando. It's actually screen-printed two colors (white and silver) on black French paper, 18x24. It's featured in this year's Graphis poster annual." : Radiohead poster By Todd Slater of Round Rock, Texas Slater says: "I designed this hand-pulled silkscreen poster for Radiohead's show in Virginia a few weeks ago. The image is a comment on how the band distributed their newest album, In Rainbows." : Captain Picard By Andy Evelhoch of Thousand Oaks, California : Stephen Colbert By Taylor Handleton of Maryland Handleton says: "This is everybody's favorite reporter, Stephen Colbert. I can't seem to find the source image, but I made it in a few hours in Metapad (for the transparency)." : Marlboro poster By Nozomu Wakabayashi of Kanagawa, Japan Wakabayashi says: "Making ASCII art is a hobby. There's a lot of hype about the high price of cigarettes these days, so I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if there was a cigarette poster like this one?'"