Publication of 50 Surreal & Fantastic Artists / melbourne launch
Metamorphosis (our hard cover publication of 50 artists including Andrew Gonzalez, Ernst Fuchs & Alex Grey), will be available for $40 AUS (wholesale price) this Saturday 3pm-2am at the Angel Circus Festival at Noise Bar (291 Albert St, Brunswick, Melbourne) with Live Bands: Martin Martini & The Bone Palace Orchestra, Counterfeit Gypsies & Skeleton Soup and much more. Full details
here.
We have published an art book entitled ‘Metamorphosis’ which will be available from our online shop soon. This book presents the work of 50 contemporary artists of the Surreal Art, Fantastic Realism & Visionary art traditions (most of whom are featured Artists on beinart.org). We have endeavored to compile a balanced publication, showing the extremes of both ‘light’ and ‘dark’ themes. The two extremes are usually presented separately, but we believe they belong together under the umbrella of human experience.
By featuring the work of established artists such as Ernst Fuchs, Alex Grey, Victor Safonkin, Andrew Gonzalez, Martina Hoffmann, Brigid Marlin, Laurie Lipton, Maura Hoden, Daniel Martin Diaz, Chet Zar, De Es, Peter Gric, Kris Kuksi, Brom and Robert Venosa alongside that of relatively unknown – though extraordinary – artists, we have aimed to bring a host of new artists into the public eye. We hope that this publication will be the first of a series that will provide exposure for many more artists in future.
Excerpts from Forewords published in Metamorphosis
“….Even when Fantastic art was strictly forbidden, such as during the period when Russia was ruled by Brezhnev, knowledge of this style of art continued to spread. One of my first students in 1952 in Paris was a very remarkable, talented person, a dancer, painter and tattoo fetishist, Vali Myers from Melbourne. We stayed in contact until her death in 2005. She and Mati Klarwein were my first followers in Paris, so it gives me great pleasure that another Australian admirer of my work should publish this book. Some of the names included here are very familiar to me, or have studied under my guidance and become excellent teachers themselves – artists such as Brigid Marlin and Philip Rubinov Jacobson. This book will carry a fundamental message to art lovers: Fantastic art has survived despite all official attempts to quench its spirit.”
Ernst Fuchs 2006
“….Visionary art, being an offshoot and kin of Surrealism, Fantastic Realism, Dada and Outsider art, taps into a cosmic conduit of creative cognition that allows the so-called Visionary artist access to the infinite iconography of universal form and colour, while at the same time, through the artist’s level of consciousness and technical skill, it provides us with imagery of potential states of the material and spiritual. Consciousness levels for the Visionary can be achieved through various methods and bestowals, and these might include yogic and meditative disciplines; learning from and resonating to higher levels of the intellectual and spirit guides and accomplished masters; sudden and divine enlightenment; and lucid dreamings and altered states brought about through ingestion of the manifold sacramental entheogens such as LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca, among others. In my own experience, I must say that an abundance of inspiration and consciousness expansion has been transmitted to me in the form of the various sacramental entheogens. Psychedelics have probably had the most profound influence on my life since the zygote selected my gender. They have catapulted me from the most banal of deep-sleep consciousness levels up to the authentic Sun King’s hall of light, life and oil paint….”
Robert Venosa 2006
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