CHRISTINA ALLAN NEW EXHIBIT - DEAD SEA

A collection of new works by Christina Allan

On view at Alchemy Gallery September 7 – October 8

55 Delancey St. New York, NY 10002

DEAD SEA presents a series of paintings that unveil a world of spiritual creatures with a bioluminescent quality lurking in the depths of the deep sea – from skeletal sea gods to monsters, royalty, grim reapers, and mermaids. Building on the skeleton motif, a recurring character in Allan’s work, the series creates glowing, vibrant lifeforms and surrealistic elements that illuminate a dark dream-like ocean atmosphere and underworld.

DEAD SEA was born from a personal and collective curiosity about the mysterious nature of the ocean, much of which remains undiscovered and unexplored to this day. It’s the home for some of the most ancient creatures on the planet capable of surviving in extreme environments, and some producing the only light found in deep depths. It’s a dark world, populated with alien-like habitats and creatures able to adapt to near-darkness with large eyes and peculiar camouflage. The curiosity for the unknown, a recurring theme in Allan’s work, has been a topic explored throughout history. The sea, in particular, has been feared and fantasized, through avenues including ancient folk tales of deep sea creatures to horror films depicting otherworldly, frightening beings.

DEAD SEA communicates the awe, sublime, and sense of greatness that the sea and its inhabitants evoke (known and unknown), and the mysteries and secrets that nature holds. For Allan, the series revisits her childhood and present-day fascination with sea life and fantasy, and creates a world where both lightness and darkness, and good and evil thrive. It imagines a place in which spiritual, grotesque and fantastical creatures might exist and evolve, and the power dynamics and structures of such a world.

Creatures float in a realm of darkness and glow off the canvas with electric hues. In Shell Rider, a skeletal creature rides a surrealistic seashell car that illuminates its way through the darkness, and other sea life, with an electric blue light. Siren Captured depicts a skeletal siren hybrid wearing a glowing medallion being attacked and held captive by eel-like monsters with fluorescent gold chains. The series of paintings depicts an imperfect world filled with bliss, power, survival, conflict and terror.

Every artwork in the exhibition was originally composed as a digital painting in Photoshop, then translated into larger scaled works on canvas using an airbrush, spray paint, and acrylic paint. The result is a series that recreates a digital aesthetic and presents airbrushed forms with a hazy, energetic glow that mimics bioluminescent light.