Snooze Group Show at Scaramouche

The 6-month-old, Stanton Street gallery, Scaramouche (formerly Fruit and Flower Deli), presents its third group show, Snooze.  Snooze, curated by Marco Antonini, features 7 young American and European artists interpreting those drowsy, hazy moments between sleep and consciousness and/or dream and reality.

Upon entering the small space, you first notice Alessandro Dal Pont's minimalist character on the floor consisting of a mat/blanket and two turned-over glasses placed where the character's eyes should be.  Though already dead when I visited, the glasses each housed a fly, which, when alive, flew around inside the glasses mimicking rapid eye movement (REM), the fluttering of the eyes when asleep/dreaming. 

I next noticed Patrick Meagher's  two perpetually spinning clocks.  One clock's background featured the dreaded rainbow-colored disk you get on a Mac while waiting for a file to download.  The other clock featured the even-more-dreaded hourglass that appears on other operating systems.  Opposite Meagher's clocks, was Evan Roth's slowly composed pattern he made using repeated mouse strokes and clicks and then transferred on to canvas.  Both of these works reflect on the unreal, dream-like time spent while working on a computer.

Ivan Petrovic and Bettina Cohnen both offer mysterious, surreal photographs of dream-like states, Petrovic in black-and-white and Cohnen in cinematic color.  Alessandro Roma's collage features a painting layered under paper which is layered under sheer, textured fabric, reminiscent of a starry, nighttime sky. 

Former comic illustrator, Aleksandar Zograf's double-printed illustrations feature images from his dream log.  The artist records his previous night's dreams each morning when he wakes up.  The graphic prints offer a literal peek inside the artist's subconscious.

In keeping with the theme of the exhibit, visitors with questions are encouraged to call Antonini between the hours of 6:30am-8:30am, to catch the curator in those moments teetering between consciousness and sleep.  Snooze is on view until August 1st.  See Scaramouche website here.  Special thanks to Geraldine at Scaramouche for the pictures below :)

One of Aleksandar Zograf's prints

Bettina Cohnen's surreal photos

Evan Roth's computer-generated canvas

From left to right: Alessandro Roma's collage, another of Zograf's prints (above door), Patrick Meagher's clocks, one of Ivan Petrovic's b&w photos, and Alessandro Dal Pont's minimalist character (on the ground).