Dilka Bear’s and Rain’s Solo Exhibitions @ Haven Gallery

September 17, 2016

This autumn, Haven Gallery (Northport, NY) presents two simultaneous solo exhibitions featuring Dilka Bear‘s and Rain‘s most recent works. “Full Moon Children” is Dilka Bear’s first solo exhibition in the United States, and “Songs of Maldoror” is Rain‘s first solo show in the gallery. Even though both artists are known for their surrealistic works; their styles, subject matters, and color palettes are very different from one another. While Dilka’s imaginative, melancholic, and dreamy works are reminiscent of childhood, fairy tales, and Italian Renaissance paintings; Rain’s dark and sensual works are redolent of danger and adventure.

Dilka Bear: “Full Moon Children” and Rain: “Songs of Maldoror”

Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 17, 2016 | 6-8PM

Exhibition Dates:
September 17 – October 23, 2016

Haven Gallery

155 Main St., Suite 4
(The Carriage House Square)
Northport, NY 11768

Hours of Operation:
Wednesday – Sunday | 12PM – 6PM

Dilka Bear: “Full Moon Children”

Press Release:

“Full Moon Children”, a solo show of new work by Italy based artist Dilka Bear. “Full Moon Children” is Dilka Bear’s first solo show in the states and features 13 paintings of Dilka’s quintessential young figures interacting harmoniously with animals and creatures in the landscape. Dilka Bear is known for painting emotive children oftentimes found in rural settings amongst wildlife of a surrealistic nature. Each painting is a piece of a greater story and imbue the dream like qualities of a child’s imagination. The inhabitants of her paintings can always be found in the natural world sharing their personal tales. In this particular series, a focus on the changing environment can be noted through the the artist’s palette, landscape and narrative.

A symbiotic balance of life is demonstrated by the natural interactions present between animals and humans. Yet Dilka’s world is not a pristine one. A sense of melancholia touches each child’s face and echoes of death present darker themes of reality. Environmental changes are depicted and the correlation between humans and nature clearly defined. A fish lays limp in a young girl’s lap as she kneels at the sea shore painted mostly with yellow, murky tones. A bumble bee rests submissively in the arms of another girl in an icy landscape. In each of these girl’s gazes, beyond their innocence, is a sense of all knowingness present that makes us question our current relationship with our own environment.

Dilka Bear has been drawing and imagining her own stories since childhood. With their confrontational gaze, many of Dilka’s children beckon you to join them in their world, a world upon first glance, that is foreign, yet familiar, as a sense of nostalgia is rekindled in our hearts, returning us to a place of thought and substance we commonly experienced as children. These dreamy tales appear sentimental and sanguine yet poignantly reflect the world as it is in its current day.

About Dilka Bear:

Dilka Bear studied Architecture at the Almaty University of Arts, in Kazakhstan. After working as an illustrator and a graphic designer for companies such as Cosmopolitan Kazakhstan, Grey Central Asia, Saatchi & Saatchi Kazakhstan, she devoted herself to painting. In 2005, she moved to Trieste, where she currently lives. Influenced by the great masters of the past, such as Bruegel and Bosch, the Italian Renaissance, but also by contemporary artists such as Marion Peck and Ray Caesar, and by Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Dilka Bear paints beautiful illustrations of young children and their frank expressions that mirrors the worlds around them.

(Above) “Lovers”, oil on wood, 7.1 x 9.4 inches, 9.4 x 13.4 inches framed in vintage brass frame from 1950s

(Above) “Lovers 2”, oil on wood, 7.1 x 9.4 inches, 9.4 x 13.4 inches framed in vintage brass frame from 1950s

(Above) “Wanderlust“, oil on wooden panel, 11.8 inches (round)

(Above) “Death of the fish king“, oil on wood, 11.8 x 15.7 inches (oval), vintage frame

(Above) “Blue dog“, mixed media on antique music sheet (1886), 7.7 x 10.7 inches, 16.7 x 19.7 inches framed

(Above) “Sunday morning in Tralalandia“, oil on wooden panel, 11.8 x 11.8 x 1 inches

(Above) “Shurale”, oil on wood, 18 x 21.8 inches, 21.5 x 25.4 inches framed

(Above) “Hunter“, oil on wood 17.8 x 19.7 inches, 21.2 x 23.2 inches framed

(Above) “Moth boy“, oil on wood, 11.8 x 15.7 inches, 17.3 x 21.3 inches framed

Rain: “Songs of Maldoror”

Press Release:

Haven Gallery is pleased to present “Songs of Maldoror”, a solo show of new oil paintings by Ukrainian born artist Rain. “Songs of Maldoror” is Rain’s first solo show at the gallery and is made up of 10 paintings illustrating the novel of the same title, originally written in French as “Les Chants de Maldoror”, by writer Comte de Lautreamont, published in 1868-1869. Rain has illustrated moments depicted from the novel’s poetic cantos that represent a myriad of moments of contemplation and action by the main character, anti-hero, Maldoror. The publication itself seeks to question our true nature and contemplate our primal urges.

“Les Chants de Maldoror” is and continues to be a controversial piece of literature.; the novel’s focus is on an anti hero character, Maldoror, who’s unspeakable behaviors frequent acts of violence, depravity and cruelty. He has been likened to a fallen angel ultimately questioning humanity’s values in their most base forms as well as the creator behind the origination of man. It is a work of nihilism and controversy and has been deeply favored by the Surrealist Artists such as Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Max Ernst, André Breton amongst many others.

Rain, a contemporary surrealist painter, looks to her own dreams for inspiration as well as the shaping of her personal psyche:

“Dreams are elusive. Eroded by time, their abstractions turn to ghosts but it is here that I first drew my inspirations. From infancy, night terrors plagued my sleep and inadvertently fueled curiosity that has become my faithful companion in psychology and art.” (Rain)

The absence of moral groundwork in the subconscious often leave us with nightly journeys charting into raw and innate territory. Such ideas and actions are often dismissed as quickly as they are forgotten, despite their roots stemming from our greater consciousness. As experienced in the work of her Surrealist predecessors and “Les Chants de Maldoror”, the audience is subject to truths many would prefer to leave unearthed as their mere acknowledgement questions what we as humans potentially are and can be capable of as a species.

“This body of work aims to shake convention and reincarnate Comte de Lautreamont’s antagonist through the anarchistic corners of my own subconscious. I am Maldoror, and largely he is a part of everyone. The raw, impulsive, and very human shadows that lurk behind what we think and what we say are illuminated in this series. Lautreamont’s bizarre genius is portrayed at the expense of sanctions by the literary masses and my interpretation of his only novel is a tribute to the father of Surrealism. The beautiful eloquence of his narration starkly contrasts its grisly anecdotes that upon first glance serve as the macabre ramblings of a madman, however, upon closer inspection the philosophical implications of his tales weaved through allegorical characters expose a visionary relevant to this day…The author, artist and viewer interchangeably walking opposite sides of the same mirror.” (Rain)

In its initial publication, Les Chants de Maldoror was virtually unknown and ignored. It was not until the 1930’s when the Surrealist Artists rediscovered the text and found its dreamlike writing style and controversial questioning of morality through the use humanity at its darkest and most ethically questionable, as the precursor to their own artistic movement. Dali and Magritte are amongst a handful of artists who have found inspiration in “Les Chants de Maldoror”; Dali’s illustrations can be found in the forms of photogravure and drypoints at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The controversial content and moral questioning of de Lautreamont’s writing will continue to serve as stimuli for the creative minds of the present and future.

About Rain

Rain was born in 1987 in the Ukraine and received her Bachelor’s of Art in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in NY. She is a surrealist painter known for blending illustrative tendencies with prominent works of literature and academic ideas, forming a cohesive narrative typical of old master canons that question and raise universal questions. Her work imbues a strong sense of narrative meditation calling for audience conjecture and personal contemplation. Rain works full time as a tattoo artist but spends her free time painting in oil in her Queens based studio and home.

(Above) “Pact with Prostitution”, oil and goldleaf on board, 29.5 x 29.5 inches, 41.75 x 41.75 inches framed

(Above) “The Letter”, oil on board, 16 x 20 inches, 26 x 30 inches framed

(Above) L: “Angel’s Punishment”, oil and goldleaf on board, 16 x 28 inches, 27.75 x 39.25 inches framed
R: “Hermaphrodite Sleeps”, oil and goldleaf on board, 19.5 x 37.5 inches, 31.75 x 49.75 inches framed

(Above) L: “Maldoror”, oil and goldleaf on board, 19.5 x 37.5 inches, 31.75 x 49.75 inches framed
R: “Ghosts of Lover’s Past”, oil and goldleaf on board, 20 x 38 inches,