PHANTAKALIFRAGILISTIGEXPIALIGETISCH

OPENING: Fri 5 Dec 2008 6-10pm
6 Dec - 10 Jan 2008

Artists Anonymous - Gordon Cheung - Peter Feiler -
Sebastian Gögel - Sigga B. Sigurdardottir

The phantacalifragilisticexpialidocious power of imagination not only can be felt in the magic world of animated cartoons but is present also in the various forms of contemporary art. Confronting fantasy worlds with reality is providing an insight how diffi cult it is to understand fantastic things when they are rated “unrealistic”.

Today, every style that combines the real with the phantasmagoric or mystic is labeled as surrealistic. Thus the unreal claims the same self-evident level of realness as everyday reality which often also seems imaginary or absurd.

The surrealistic worlds of Gordon Cheung’s paintings pull the viewer with their utopian and dystopian power into their spell. Against the background of Financial Times stock exchange columns, well-known iconographic representations establish a direct reference to the overwhelming power and illusion of today’s fi nancial world. Sebastian Gögel’s universe is populated by hybrids which stand between humans and animals in all known and unknown intermediate stages of evolution. Magic creatures emerge in Sigga Björg Sigurdardottir’s paper works, deeply rooted in the belief in the imps, trolls and fairies of Icelandic mythology. Peter Feiler creates complex, confusing paintings; interior worlds are inverted outward. The positive/negative images by Artists Anonymous are controlled by beings that seem to partly have risen from fantasy and to partly pick up characters from comics or emblems of mass culture, challenging at the same time their functions.

Galerie Adler Frankfurt am Main
Hanauer Landstraße 134
60314 Frankfurt
Germany

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