Wonderland

Brandt-Roberts Galleries is pleased to present Wonderland, a group exhibition exploring the boundaries of illusion and reality, voyeurism and spectatorship. Wonderland aims to look at how art might address the various forms of human sexuality.

Sensuality and sexuality have long been associated with art and artists.  The nude, the naked body in all its wonders and flaws, has long been a preoccupation of artists. One might tend to think of Greek and Roman statuary as the pivotal examples of naked human forms.  However, humans have incorporated nudes and sexuality into art, worship, and daily life since the beginning of civilization.  From Rome to Egypt to India and Persia, sexual art existed throughout the ancient world. It was often used to promote fertility and ancestral lines, but also to tell erotic stories, or even to mark graves. There have been cultures and epochs where explicit references to sexuality were more accepted by societal norms, and times when the subject was taboo. As sexual norms have changed through the course of the 20th century, we’ve also begun to understand the true nature of the past, unveiling that many bygone civilizations celebrated sexuality in a way that would seem radical today.  

Even with the groundbreaking social changes of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, what is considered to be the norm of exposure to nudity and sensuality differs from other areas of the world.  Judgements of what is acceptable is rather subjective and context-dependent, thus what is appropriate for one particular culture may not be for another. This may lead one to pose the question: Where do the lines of intimacy, desire and forbidden acts begin to blur within varying artistic configurations? At what point do we become congenial with being exposed to it?  Most of us would not shudder at the nakedness of Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or the iconic statue of David.  Do the Nymphs frolicking in the gardens of antiquity paintings elicit a sense of unease?  Do Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs breach acceptable limits?

Wonderland, comprised of work from seven multifarious contemporary artists, will delve into the sensual nature of the human being. It will endeavor to address the intersection between our public and private personas and how we express, or conceal, our sensuality and the spectrum that it encompasses. The exhibition will play broadly on the imagination, the implicit or the suggestive. From oil painting, to mixed media work, to blown glass, this show will evoke a sense of discovery for the onlooker, be this in their own personal exploration or in illuminating for them the perspective of another. Artists will include Gavin Benjamin, Caitlin Cartwright, Brianna Gluszak, Magnus Juliano, Jason Morgan, Gabriel Pozzo, Cat Ramos, and Terry Rodgers. 

The exhibition will be curated by internationally acclaimed artists Terry Rodgers and Magnus Juliano. Rodgers’ work focuses on portraying contemporary body politics. His rendering of an imaginary leisure life stands as an iconic vision of the tensions and confusions endemic to today's society. His large-scale paintings are a compression and dissection of our rampant imaginations and mediated influences. The seductive and marvelous glamor of the outer world jars against the vulnerability and delicacy of our inner and private selves.  

Juliano is a multidisciplinary artist, multifaceted designer and creative director. With minimal education in graphic design, Magnus is proudly self-taught in all other disciplines including photography, mixed media art, and fashion and accessory design.Innovation is at the forefront of the work that Magnus creates. Work that navigates the intersections of race, culture, identity, history, and the future. He hopes to inspire paradigm shifting conversation.

Wonderland  is on view from February 11th through March 1st, during gallery hours, Wednesday- Friday from 11-5pm, Saturday- Sunday from 1-5pm, and by private appointment. There will be an opportunity to meet the exhibiting curators and artists from 6-9pm on Saturday February 11th. Private appointments and virtual catalogs can be requested by emailing info@brandtrobertsgalleries.com or calling 614.223.1655.