Collection: Forest Of Fantasy, Selected By Bessie Kunath (online exhibition)

About the exhibition

This collection of objects and images meanders through the enchanted woods on a gothic quest steered by good and evil forces. The trees seem to come to life and the ground beneath is wrought with ancient Druidic wisdom.  Sculptures and paintings by Heather Hamann, Shana Harper and Michael Nunez foreground the setting of the woods,  with castles of unknown nature scattered in the background. The castles could represent a benevolent place to rest one’s weary head or may be a signal of bad things to come. An encounter with a mystical spider or butterfly from  Jean McElvane as well as other creatures like Stephanie Welch’s forest nymph or Jon Fukui’s unicorn serve to help or hinder you. While symbols such as Mireya Betances’ and Danny Thach’s stars and birds or Jeremy Burelson’s rainbows and serpents are left for interpretation. The soundtrack to this fateful journey is provided by Christian Vassell’s mixed media works on vinyl records which contain Renaissance Festival Music and Highlights from Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino”.  Go forth and may your travels be prosperous, meaningful and enlightening.

About the selector

Bessie Kunath (b. 1981, Orange, CA) is an artist and curator who lives in Cleveland, Ohio where she currently works as a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic. She has formerly worked at Creativity Explored in San Francisco and at ECF Art Centers in Los Angeles, CA. She holds an M.F.A. in Studio Art from University of California Santa Barbara, a B.A. in Art and an MA in Education from the University of San Francisco. Kunath has participated in exhibitions in San Francisco, Oakland, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, New York, Finland and Tokyo. She has been an independent curator since 2005 and a member of LA-based curatorial collective, Manual History Machines since 2012.