NADIA MOSS @ Tartine July 23, 2009

NADIA MOSS
Fantomes!

July 23rd – August 27th

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, July 23rd from 9pm – 11pm

Curated by Brianna Toth

TARTINE
600 Guerrero @ 18th
San Francisco

Fantomes! is a stream of consciousness tableau which uses metaphorical beasts to explore the emotional burdens of caregiving. In her watercolors and illustrations Moss creates a fantasy world whimsical yet ominous, and often perplexing. Her ethereal bestiaries brim with hybrid figures that mingle with babies in a pantomime of the ritual aspects of human nature and interaction. These maternal creatures attempt to breast feed, coddle hoards of feral children, embrace one another, or play doctor. Caught in moments of primal uncertainty, Moss’s beasts stand in for our own psychic pain and need that emerge and mutate in monstrous ways, distorting perception and disconnecting us from the everyday. This draws a line between Moss’s work and that of other fabulists such as Maurice Sendak and Brian Froud. Rather than place her phantoms in a fully realized fantasy world, Moss situates them on a blank background, allowing monstrous emotions to take center stage and create their own context.

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Nadia Moss is a Montréal-based visual artist whose work encompasses drawing, painting and doll making. Although Fantomes! will be her first exhibition in San Francisco, Moss has previously shown her work across Canada and had her illustrations published in the Walrus and Maisonnueve magazines, numerous zines and self-published books. Her role as a visual artist also extends to the music community as a creater of posters and album artwork for Carla Bozulich, A Silver Mt Zion, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Vic Chesnutt and others. Moss has two books published through L’Oie de Cravan. Her most recent publication Bébé will be available at Needles and Pens for the duration of the show.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nadiamoss/
http://www.oiedecravan.com/cat/catalogue.php?v=t&lang=en