Go ahead, sink into October – and its conjuring spirit – like the first bite of a poison apple. So bittersweet, it consumes you. Tempting your imagination and haunting your senses, indulge your gnawing curiosity for dark art and all of its wonderful weirdness. Join The Dark Art Emporium this weekend in honour of A Devotion of Ghosts, featuring works by Brian Serway and Caitlin Hackett. With surreal elements of nature and shadowed undertones that seemingly come alive in the subconscious, each collection unveils a passage of magic – leaving us bewitched and bemused. And like a call from silence, the conceptual compositions and dreamscape diversity awakens the soul as we delve deeper into the incomparable styles and creative outpouring of each artist.
“Magic Hours”
“Deity of Dreams”
Don’t forget…you can time travel and see all the previous exhibitions. To view available artworks, visit The Dark Art Emporium website! If you haven’t discovered The Art Pit DAE Podcast, now’s the time. The Jeremys (as in Jeremy Schott – Owner and Jeremy Cross – Assistant Director) discuss all things art, music, movies, and more. Episodes are available to stream using Soundcloud via The Dark Art Emporium website or their YouTube channel.
A Devotion of Ghosts: Brian Serway & Caitlin Hackett
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 8, 2022 | 5-9pm
The Dark Art Emporium
121 W. 4th Street, Long Beach, California 90802
Friday & Saturday 12 – 7pm | Sunday 12 – 5pm
Located in Downtown Long Beach within The 4th Horseman
For additional information and purchase availability please contact Jeremy@darkartemporium.com
Brian Serway //
Brian Serway was born in southwest Virginia, grew up there and in southern Florida, and currently lives in Johnson City, Tennessee. He was raised by his mother who was an impressionistic oil painter, and encouraged him to create from a very young age. Growing up around dense forests, vast mountain hollers, and abandoned towns, Brian developed a deep passion for the natural world and his Blue Ridge Mountain home.
As he grew, Brian synthesized his love for folklore, the cosmos, and wildlife into a personal artistic mythology; in an attempt to evoke the archaic, the ethereal, and deeply mysterious qualities of Appalachia.
“My passion for the natural world has inspired my art since I first put pencil to paper as child. I grew up on the northern coast of California, between the cold Pacific ocean and the redwood forests. It was there that my love for nature and wilderness flourished. As I have grown I have combined my love for animals with my interest in both wildlife biology and mythology to create artwork that speaks to the current biological mythos that constructs the barrier between what is considered Human, and what is considered Animal.
Mirroring ancient myths of transformation in often grotesque ways, we find in contemporary times that animals are being transformed biologically due to interactions with human pollutants; there are frogs with triplicate legs and blind eyes, cows with shriveled sets of legs growing out of their backs, two faced piglets being born on factory farms and radioactive fish rotting from the inside in poisoned seas, the list goes on. I am interested in the power of these mutations both for their mythological allusions as well as their dire environmental implications. I hope to remind those who view my artwork that we too are animals, embedded in this fragile world even as we poison it.”
