Strychnin Gallery Berlin presents: Fractured Fairy Tales – New Works by Lori Field

Opening reception for the artist on May 16th 7 p.m.

Dreamy tattooed figures appear to be sleeping behind an opaque veil. Colorful animals and flowers are floating against tactile backgrounds of lace. Lori Field’s encaustic paintings are set between reality and dreams, they show us strange and mysterious worlds in which hybrid creatures such as two-headed cats with human bodies are oddly normal. Follow the white rabbit and enter wonderland – you’re in good company.

American artist Lori Field creates obsessive drawings that are combined with encaustic painting, a centuries old technique going back to ancient Greece, “enkauston” being the Greek word for “to burn into.” Recurring creations in her work are human/animal hybrids that retain the physical characteristics of both. Not entirely adapted to either their own environment or the human world, they are at odds with their surroundings.
Field also frequently portrays animals that cannot speak or cry out – such as rabbits, deer, or flying fish – as a way of emphasizing the hyperawareness that comes from listening intently, without speaking. Animals lack self-consciousness or artifice, so the animal-like figures provide a means for emotive personification, characterizing or exhibiting human motives and foibles, offering us possibilities of interpreting their behavior.

As her shape-shifting creatures morph, are they 'becoming-animal' or 'becoming-human'? Which transformation would leave them better off? These human/animal archetypes – a cast of reoccurring characters found in her work – create intuitive narratives that explore themes of loss, rebirth, identity, denial, alienation, loneliness and ultimately, human vulnerability.

Lori Field explores and visualizes the concept of 'the other.' Her paintings and drawings are deliberately intimate, depicting seductive creatures in settings that seem as yet untouched by the human species, but which evoke a flawed, human fragility nonetheless. Her work has been exhibited all over the USA and in Europe, and can be found in many public collections.

Opening night: May 16th, 7 pm
Duration: May 16th – June 16th 2008

Strychnin Gallery
Boxhagener Straße 36
10245 Berlin

PR Contact: Iris Bitter
Phone: +49 30 9700 2035
production@strychnin.com
www.strychnin.com

Open: Thu-Sun 1–6 pm and by appointment

With galleries in three bustling hotspots – New York City, Berlin, and London – Strychnin Gallery is a playground for artists from all around the globe. It is a place where collaboration is encouraged, new projects are constantly developed and creativity is the one and only thing that truly counts.

Owned by charismatic curator Yasha Young, Strychnin is dedicated to presenting emerging American artists to the European art world and vice versa. It features a variety of artists with particular individual styles rather than artists belonging to a collective “hip” movement. If you insist on putting a label on them, try lowbrow turned highbrow, pop surrealism or fantastic realism among others.

Founded in Brooklyn in 1998, the gallery opened a European showroom in Berlin in 2002. The US gallery has since moved to a location in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, opening with a group show featuring over 70 artists in October of 2006. Strychnin Gallery opened a third location in East London’s vibrant art scene right off of Brick Lane in October 2007.

It participates in major international art fairs such as Bridge Art Fair, Liste, and Art21 in Cologne, to which Strychnin owner Yasha Young was appointed to the selection committee in 2008.

This release was published on openPR.