Booth Gallery is set to open a great group show, "Pretty Creepy" on March 4th in NYC with a cast of artists that rank as some of our favorites of the moment: Aaron Johnson, Balint Zsako, Barnaby Whitfield, Chris Gullander, Christian Rex van Minnen, Dawn Frasch, Irena Jurek, Jade Mac Townsend, Jennifer Caviola, Jenny Morgan, Marci Washington and Rebecca Morgan.
An ode to “beautifully grotesque” visual languages, the exhibit references Italian writer and critic Umberto Eco’s book “On Ugliness,” an exploration of the monstrous, evil and darkness and its seductiveness in art and literature.
“What links the works in this exhibition to one another is a common desire to investigate the ‘cult of ugliness’ in a world where there’s nothing left to hide,” says artist Barnaby Whitfield.
The figurative imagery and technical mastery of these artists becomes a means to subvert the current canons of beauty. The subjects represented, ranging from realistically rendered portraits to witty and humorous characters, are depicted in a playful, tragicomic manner, and draw attention to the subtle boundary between the perceived and the observed, between awareness and deep cognition. Here, human psychology is set ablaze, not just with form and color to enhance its allure, but with a probing portrayal of who we are and what it means to be alive. Ugliness is a multi-dimensional character trait.
