Creative Mythologies

By Alan Hustak, August 22nd, 2012

NostraCasa a new concept gallery opening in St. Henri on Aug. 30 represents a felicitous marriage of contemporary art, interior design and eco-luxurious furniture.
A dozen artists are represented at the gallery's opening art exhibition Creative Mythology, a show that features fairy tale beings, astonishing animals, and esoteric creatures that dwell in an artist's deep flight of fancy.  It is an unusual concept that combines the surreal with conceptual photography and sculpture.
“People want a supernatural edge in their world,” says the exhibition's curator Summer Geraghty, a recent MFA graduate from Concordia University. “People are increasingly looking for something that is not ordinary”.
The multi-media show features paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs that depict human related but fantastical creatures. “The pieces I accepted had to be not only beautiful and intriguing, but they had to be developed in the sense that they had to be professional .They had to have their own thematic, their own vocabulary.”
On view are imaginative works by Montreal artists Rachel Tremblay, Emma Kate Guimond, Farrah Allegue, Dustyn Lucas and Kim Billing, William Parrick and Morgan Sea, with Dani Holtz;  Toronto's Kirsten McCrea, Gillian King of Winnipeg,  Emily Jan from Oakland, Calf, and Jalal Abuthina, who is from Dubai.
The artists borrow from imagery and illustration, fuzzy furry and sometimes harrowing creatures. Look carefully and you just might see familiar images from your childhood dreams.
The gallery's partners include Maha Al Sahhaf, Claudia Cavallini, a specialist in imported Brazilian furniture, and interior designer Mirelli Antunes.