#surrealism

#surrealism

Murni or I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, to go by her full name was a Balinese artist who shrugged off all the norms and expectations that life chucked at her and instead made art with total abandon. By the time she died aged 39 in 2006, taken by ovarian cancer, she'd left behind a body of ultra-simple, mega-bold, hyper-colourful painting that functions as a testament to a life lived honestly, independently and very, very hornily.

It's hard to imagine today when we're constantly barraged with algorithm-selected content in the palm of our hands, but until the 1960s, the concept of turning on the TV and seeing images of Count Dracula one second and then the Vietnam War the next moment was incomprehensible. For the first time, people were seeing images of political assassinations, the oppression of protests and the carnage of war in their living rooms.

A selection of work from artist Yeon Yeoin's latest solo exhibition with DIA contemporary. Born and based in Seoul, Yeon majored in Psychology and Creative Visual Arts at Sogang University. Her work is an exploration of emotion through surreal imagery. Using a wide range of techniques, from pen and ink to digital painting, Yeon creates a unique world inspired by her personal experiences and filled with original characters that reflect difficult-to-define emotional states.

Building a wunderkammer is a surrealist exercise, in a way,

Sara Toby Moore's "The Mechanix," a self-described "science fiction-magical realism-human cartoon" show, takes place on "a normal day at a seaside amusement pier." The show includes interdimensional travel, anthropomorphic animals, the nature of free will, and an extended riff on "The Wizard of OZ." Through it all, one would be forgiven for occasionally asking what one thing has to do with the other. It's a question that never gets answered.

The show features painting, sculpture, photography, film and assemblage, tracing how artists working in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and New York grappled with identity, sexuality, race and power in ways often overlooked in canonical art histories. Though the women's liberation movement didn't enter wider public consciousness until the early 1970s, Sixties Surreal showcases how women artists were creating an early feminist aesthetic and imagining new fields of possibility for themselves and their work.

The Lagos-based artist builds vivid, textured collages that feel like tiny, self-contained worlds, chronicling life through a visual journal.

"The word for snow will be the snow," says one, foreseeing a time when language itself will be scorched away by some cosmic fatality.

Evie Cavallo’s hero's journey begins with an impending eviction, reminiscent of pandemic upheavals, forcing her to confront her reality and identity amidst absurdity.

Have you ever seen the onearmed man running a bye to the keeper while 20,000 people leap and writhe and hold their heads and the one-armed man shouts in agony? This scene captures the surreal essence of a cricket match, where intense emotion exists even amidst a seemingly uneventful game.

Minami Kobayashi's figurative oil paintings and sculptures intertwine elements of intimacy and mystery, showcasing ordinary subjects with a surreal twist. Her work evokes a sense of the uncanny, engaging viewers with familiar yet disorienting imagery.

PAGER transforms a mundane 1990s office environment into an unnerving psychological horror experience, requiring players to navigate bizarre instructions from their pager to ascend the corporate ladder.

Suzanne Cesaire co-founded a journal called Tropiques and published influential essays on politics, literature, and art, inspired by her encounter with surrealist Andre Breton.

People are not very good at remembering things the way they really happened. If an experience is an article of clothing, then memory is the garment after it's been washed, not according to the instructions, over and over again: the colours fade, the size shrinks, the original, nostalgic scent has long since become the artificial orchid smell of fabric softener.

What Arshile Gorky and the other great immigrant observers of America had in common is that each pursued a passion in the modern sense, making art against the grain of commerce, while each underwent a passion in the mythical Greek sense-had some moment of struggle or pain that resolved in art, and, often, in the closest thing artists get to immortality: a place in the collective memory.

Open Window in its simplicity is a metaphor for looking inside. An informal invitation to walk up closer and peek in.

Salvador Dalí's logo redesign for Chupa Chups not only modernized the brand but also created a lasting visual identity that contributed to the brand's longevity.

Echos of Reverie is a surrealist fashion editorial suspended between memory and dream, unfolding as a visual symphony of tension and introspection through metamorphosis.