440 Gallery presents: Alice Revisited by Ellen Kahn February 19, 2009

In her first exhibition at the 440 Gallery, Ellen Kahn presents Alice Revisited, a collection of paintings and works on paper. Alice Revisited is influenced by Kahn’s fascination with the renowned books by author Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

Kahn’s work combines elements that are both personal and universal while exploring the confluences and associations between intellect and intuition, waking and dreaming, fantasy and reality. The work interweaves layers of images derived from botanical prints, childhood photographs, linear elements, text, and illustrations—including those based on John Tenniel’s original ones from Carroll’s books—to create evocative drawings and paintings that have an edginess camouflaged by a deceptively innocent nostalgia. Color is muted in both the paintings and works on paper, implying a dream state, a delicate place in which images dance and collide, forever recombining to make new impressions.

Kahn’s paintings and works on paper focus on the psychological struggle that is involved with trying to break free from childhood and move out into the world to discover one’s own identity. As in the famous Sisyphus myth, where Sisyphus keeps trying again and again to push a heavy boulder up a hill only to be pushed back continually by its weight, Alice tries to journey forward and explore wonderland only to continually be pushed back again and again by all of the strange and unexpected barriers that try to stop her. The text in these works references two specific passages from the Carroll books: one from Through the Looking-Glass, in the chapter called “The Garden of Live Flowers,” where no matter which path Alice chooses it always twists back to her house, and the other from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, right at the beginning where Alice falls down the rabbit hole only to discover that she cannot get through the little doors into the garden beyond.

Ellen Kahn’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Her most recent solo exhibitions were at Graficas Gallery, Nantucket, MA, and Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY. She has been in many group exhibitions, including Von Lintel Gallery, New York City; National Library of Argentina, Buenos Aires; Centro Cultural San Angel, Mexico City; Museo Regional de Michoancan, Morelia, Mexico; Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY; and The Drawing Center, New York City. She has had many notable residencies, including ones at the Fundacion Valparaiso, Vermont Studio Center, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Kahn studied at Carnegie Mellon University and received her BFA from the Boston Museum School and her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Alice Revisited is on view at the 440 Gallery from February 19 to March 29, 2009. An artist’s reception at the gallery will be held Friday, February 20 from 6–8:30 pm.

Official Website: http://www.440gaallery.com