A burning house with windows filled with skulls, starving kids and tense protests depicted next to Greta Thunberg.
A hanging tapestry illustrating the birth of a penguin-raised love-child of Medusa and a yeti.
A collage featuring two figures, one with a respiratory mask and another with the face of a bird juxtaposed.
These pieces are among the unconventional artworks featured in this year’s Surreal Salon 14, a free-to-view exhibition at the Baton Rouge Gallery, on display until Jan. 27.
The annual exhibition, which is in its 14th year, features more than 50 artists from six countries including the U.S., selected by Carrie Ann Baade, a Louisiana native and special guest juror. Baade participated in Surreal Salon back in 2018 as an artist in collaboration with her brother.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring this art to the south,” Baade said. “There’s also this opportunity to explore materials so that it’s not tied directly to representational painting; there was some really interesting sculpture and fiber art.”
Baade saw a bigger impact of festival and psychedelic culture manifest itself in the increase of visionary art applicants this year, and also mentioned surreal art’s “greater capacity for humor.”
“Being able to have the technical ability…to make something believable and then make it strange or uncanny.”
Though the main subjects are often unrealistic and rooted in fantasy, the emotion and message behind each work are recognizable to any viewer.
Baton Rouge artist Cara Kearns’ tapestry “The Origin of Yedusa” references compatibility and parenting, telling the story of how Medusa and a yeti birthed a child forcibly sent to Antarctica. The piece encapsulates the nature of the exhibition, focusing on the dichotomy between reality and fantasy.
Artists utilize surrealist depictions to comment on the government, the corporate world and religion. Relevant topics featured in this exhibition include the pandemic and the climate crisis.
“Precipice” by Matthew Bailey features a poster that reads, “Our house is on fire,” perched next to Thunberg. Large smokestacks, a sight well known by Louisianians, are worked into the background. A singular leaf hangs on the tree in the yard, alluding that we are on the brink of complete catastrophe.
Not all the contemporary art has modern inspiration. “Hyena of Austria” by Cassandra Kim calls back to medieval portraiture with an unrealistic twist of a hyena as the main subject.
More art with historical roots is seen in two very different pieces referencing the religious iconography of The Last Supper.
“The Last Suffer” by Tau Taeolii has the attendees’ faces replaced with a squid’s head and appendages, along with many more random objects, while “Last Ducky Supper” by Andrew Lawson places the well-known religious event in a grocery store with rubber ducks at the table.
One unique feature of this year’s salon is the increase in mixed media art and sculptures. With some works requiring UV light or support from the gallery walls, there is interaction with external components that intertwine the artwork and the gallery space. Sculptures are set up throughout the center of the rooms and make for a seamless viewing experience.
Simply being fun to gaze at regardless of underlying meanings, is a trait that all the art in this exhibition shares. “Candy For The Eyes” by Olga Spiegel presents beaded colorful bursts, and “Cat Island Adventure” by Jane Tardo is a cat lover’s dream with multiple cat heads pasted in a fantastical setting.
Whether abstract or realistic, fans of darker imagery will also find pleasure in Surreal Salon. “Kermit Devouring Piggy” by Jake Mesinger surely will provide nightmare fuel to some and a laugh to others.
“Daemon” by Nathan Perry and the sculpted “Circle of Lunacy” by Tony Debartolis are pieces whose attractiveness lies in their bizarre nature. The inhuman subjects that occupy these artworks are unnatural to the eye.
My personal favorite, “Run! II” by Joni Wildman, is hung on the wall but the colorful rabbit cutout is not bound by the traditional canvas shape.
“The body of work is about running toward change–surviving by constantly moving, hurrying toward a new life and new goals in a fever and not caring about risks along the way,” Wildman said about her “Run!” series.
“As a cutout, he can be anywhere and everywhere,” she explained.
Wildman’s painting process comprises multiple layers, including an intricate Scarfito step. Wet oil paint is scratched away to reveal the neon lines in the layer below. This piece embodies the amount of work necessary to create surreal art.
LSU sees itself represented through MFA Painting Candidate Rachel Lynn York. York’s large “Idol Makers” painting involved a months-long process that began with sculpted clay figures for reference.
“While the narratives in my work are intentionally ambiguous, they are largely concerned with themes of vulnerability, decay and the threat of loss,” York said.
“I build a scene to a point of clarity and then I obscure it by printing on top, and scratching away.”
Baton Rouge Gallery visitors can expect an unordinary yet fascinating viewing experience at Surreal Salon 14.
“It’s more timely to look at art that you enjoy or takes you out of the every day,” Baade said. “We need something uplifting right now.”

Gallery • 5 Photos

Courtesy of Heather McClelland

"The Origin of Yedusa" by Cara Kearns