“The Magically Surreal and the Beautifully Real”

Provocative and even jarring juxtaposition is the name of the game for “The Magically Surreal and the Beautifully Real,” AnArte Gallery’s Fotoseptiembre 2015 show. The exhibit pairs the realistic and often unsettling urban photography/portraiture of SA-born, NYC artist/photographer Wendy Bowman with the whimsical and mystical works of Atlanta’s Thomas Dodd. While Bowman’s work often depicts its subjects against stark and unfeeling labyrinths of steel and concrete, Dodd’s work seeks, in a magical-realistic style, to bring subjects’ inner illuminations and dreams to the forefront. Taken together, the works of these two artists and photographers represent the sublime tension of modern life, between private utopias and the indifferent abyss of the public. While neither Dodd nor Bowman offer linear narratives, both call us to rewarding meditations on the nature of the real and our place within it.