From the Beast to the Blonde

Live(In) Gallery announces its May show, 
From the Beast to the Blonde
May 2 - 31, 2015
Opening reception: Saturday, May 2, 7:00 - 11:00 pm

Fairy tales aren’t for the faint of heart. They are dark, twisting, and complex much like the black forests and haunted castles that often serve as backdrops for the stories they tell. More than that they hold very human themes wrapped in magical and sometimes animalistic transformations. They include journeys, feats of bravery, and cross cultural barriers. The title of Live(In) Gallery’s May show, From the Beast to the Blonde, comes from Marina Warner’s book of the same name. In it she writes of fairy tales:

The marvels and prodigies, the seven-league boots and enchanted mirrors, the talking animals, the heroes and heroines changed into frogs or bears or cats, the overflowing golden eggs and everflowing supply of porridge, the stars on the brow of the good sister and the donkeytail sprouting on the brow of the bad - all the wonders that create the atmosphere of fairy tale disrupt the apprehensible world in order to open spaces for dreaming alternatives.

In the world that is created within these tales anything can happen, and often does. The artists included in this group show examine the fairy/folk tale genre through their own understanding of the narratives that are so familiar. 

Ellen Atkinson is a visual artist and life-long Cincinnati resident. She graduated with a BA in History from Xavier University. Ellen currently works at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. She has recently participated in the group show The Meanest of them Sparked at Thunder-Sky Inc in Northside. 

Denise Burge works in a variety of media, including drawing, film, and quilt-making. Her quilt work has been widely commissioned and collected, and was included in two Quilt National exhibitions. For this work she has been awarded multiple Ohio Arts Council grants, residencies and the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Fine Art Work Center in Provincetown, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation award. In 2006 she formed a collaborative animation group called "The Dozens". Their work premiered at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has been in several national and international film festivals. Since then, she has been creating video installation work with Lisa Siders and Jenny Ustick under the name Maidens of the Cosmic Body Running. 

Charles Chew recently returned to the Queen City where he had attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati after spending the past few years furthering his education at the University of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England. His degrees include a BFA in Illustration and an MA in Design for Exhibitions and Museums. Charles' earliest influences are such classical artists as Charles Dana Gibson, Alfonse Mucha, and Edward Gorey.

Sarah Rocheleau is a local artist from Cincinnati, OH. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in illustration from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Her studio currently resides at the Pendleton Art Center in Over-the-Rhine.

Amy Rudnik is a photographer and multimedia artist holding an Associate of Photography degree from
Antonelli College of Cincinnati. She recently began working with hair as an artistic medium in galleries such as semantics.Additionally in the recent past Rudnik has participated in several fashion shows performance pieces.

Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist, currently residing in Detroit, Michigan. The daughter of two parents that are political refugees, Soleimani inserts her own critical perspectives on historical and contemporary socio-political occurrences in Iran. Her current series of works, entitled National Anthem, melds sculpture, collage and photography, to create table top still life’s that include symbolic lexicons in reference to Iranian politics throughout the past century.

Alice Pixley Young is a multi-media artist working with installation, glass, video, sculpture and drawing. She received her MFA from the University of Maryland and has shown nationally, receiving support from the NEA and other foundations. She currently teaches at the University of Cincinnati and the School for Creative and Performing Arts and maintains a studio in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Please come celebrate the opening of From the Beast to the Blonde at Live(In) Gallery on May 2!