On View: 9th Annual Blab! Exhibit @ Copro Gallery

The 9th annual Blab! exhibition is now on display at the Corpo Gallery in Bergamot Station and it's a fantasmagoria of the uncanny and the unsettling. Filled with images of the surreal and the supernatural, the show displays the excellent work of over twenty different artists curated by Monte Beauchamp. Included in the show is a piece by Joe Coleman entitled "No One can Enter the Lords House except as a Child" it is a psychedelic inquest into the horrible murder attempted by two girls in the name of the internet legend, the Slenderman. With chilling quotes by the two girls, the painting is a portrait of them in prison garb with the Slenderman behind them and a sea of babies in agony against a forest. Here is a warning to us all that the dark side of humanity may wear an innocent face and horror can come from anywhere.

Joel Coleman

Also in the show is the ominous yet playful work of Bill Mayer who places animal heads upon the torsos of early nineteenth century figures in a highly realistic style. Among the collected works is the piece "Death of Crows" which shows a female figure in mourning dress facing away from us with the head of a cawing crow. Wings stretch out from the figures shoulders and her hands are claws, she stands upon ground streaked with black ink along a misty shore. The piece and its similar companion "Mother of Crows" recalls the Irish death goddess, the Morrigan, who was seen as the mother of crows, battle, and bloodshed. The piece exudes mystery and makes the viewer wonder into what world they have fallen.

Bill Mayer

Dancing on the line between beautiful and fearful is the piece by Jana Brike entitled, "Boy Named Frost." It shows us a boy who is a blend of male a female features with alabaster white skin and hair, ice blue eyes, and ruby red lips. He stares at us with soulless eyes as sparrows perch upon his hand and shoulders. He seems caught in a fierce snow storm, yet stands unaffected, peering at us with the detachment of a divinity or a ghost. His over scaled eyes makes one uneasy and reminded me of the stories of deadly spirits who haunt lonely mountain passes, they exact feeling one would expect from the spirit in charge of the frost.

Overall this show features an incredible array approaches to the extraordinary and bizarre, making one smile one moment and cower the next. Just in time for Halloween.