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Odd Nerdrum

There hardly needs to be any introduction to the legendary Odd Nerdrum, but I just wanted to share some of my favorite paintings by him across the decades. I love Nerdrum’s Neo-Baroque style, reminiscent of Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Caravaggio. His “odd” scenes take place in vast, barren post-apocalyptic spaces, bleak and inhospitable wastelands, softened and elevated by the beauty of his masterly techniques – sometimes dimly seen, with a delicate and translucent suffusing of color. His paintings express primal experiences of the human being, which appears through his lens as a kind of bizarre specimen, seeming alien, absurd, and ominous when viewed outside accepted conventions and interpretations. It is as if they were being observed for the first time, with no preconceived notions, yet with allegorical meaning that also heightens the absurdity.

The strange rituals and psychological contortions of mankind are here depicted with a harsh starkness, but beautifully rendered. His works often portray an enigmatic communal aspect, the empty landscapes dotted with strange figures who seem in some way mere repetitions of each other (as in Dawn and The Singers, where the skull-capped figures are echoed and indistinguishable), harking to some unknown call to obscure and inscrutable phases of experience. They seem to treat of shameful longings, a collective anxiety, amorphous dread, and deformities of the psyche. Nerdrum’s is a world where esoteric and perverse behavior does not seem regarded as such by villages and communities that, while appearing to exist in a post-apocalyptic realm, strongly remind one of past centuries – the sparse communities are exactly as strange and all take part in this alien particularity.

Of his post-apocalyptic works, the biography on Nerdrum’s Website states that his “steppe people live in pact with the elements. All that surrounds them is nameless and must be defined anew….Compositionally, Nerdrum adopted the inverted perspective with centralized figures inspired by 14th-century Russian icons….Perspective distortions akin to those of the Russian icons are evident in The Seed Protectors, where the horizon is curved and seen from a bird’s eye view, while the figures are seen from below.” These perspectives are fascinating, with their simultaneous conveyance of both vastness and unrealistically small focus.

Some of my favorite pieces of his are ones that seemingly take place in extraterrestrial space – “As a child he painted white, resurrecting figures on a black background based on impressions from fever dreams. These visions were now applied to big canvases….as seen in Love Divided and Volunteer in Void, where people float around small planets in an infinite void.” The celestial spaces depart from the brutality of his earthbound landscapes and give outlet to those airy, ethereal qualities that I love, those silky, vaporous, transparent shrouds or veils.

Many of his later works from the 2000s onwards possess a tragic emotional intensity, as in Daddy’s Girl. “The transitions between skin and background melt into each other, as in Five Singing Women, where the faces have become ghostly impersonal due to the hazy effect….The motifs take on an even rougher, more vibrant exterior…staged in a world where the surroundings ravage its inhabitants. The particular way of rendering of arms and legs carries the effect of painted movement – ​​even breathing is depicted in the form of vapor escaping from the mouth… Groups of figures are depicted as one organism… After describing a primitive rebirth in desolate landscapes…it is precisely in the underworld that Nerdrum’s motifs have unfolded in recent years. From this series of paintings, figures appear without clothes and hair on their bodies, as seen in Astray, where pale old men and people in wheelchairs are wandering without aim or meaning.”

Odd Nerdrum’s endless exploration of liminal, indefinable human states has given rise to a remarkable, iconic body of work which is instantly recognizable, although varied and wide-ranging, and continues enduringly impactful and gripping as one of the most original oeuvres of the modern era.

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“Intrusion” by Denise Levertov

After I had cut off my hands
and grown new ones

something my former hands had longed for
came and asked to be rocked.

After my plucked out eyes
had withered, and new ones grown

something my former eyes had wept for
came asking to be pitied.

— Denise Levertov

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Swan Bride, Wolf Maiden, and Mother House: The Art Dolls of Pantovola

Netherlands-based Pantovola creates the most exquisite dolls and fabric sculptures, of which I’ve never quite seen the like. These marvels of textile art are highly creative, expressive, and melancholy, filled with such a wistful whimsicality. Her teapot ghosts are precious and endearing, and I discovered her through them – but her whole body of work is extremely impressive and extensive. While remaining cohesive and adhering to a singular vision and bearing the unmistakable stamp of the artist, Pantovola dolls display a rich range, exhaling qualities of fairytale daintiness, childlike fantasy, a perturbing, haunting surrealism, mournful tragedy, and emotional intensity. The extravagant imagination and eerie pensiveness behind these dolls speak to both nostalgia for the beautiful and trusting things of childhood, and adult loss with its intricate sufferings and woes. They seem to enshrine awestruck innocence as well as the baleful shedding of innocence, and to envision womanhood as a haunting.

Drawing heavily from childhood and the holy things therein, Pantovola dolls have a certain stylistic aspect of naivete, with the curious proportions of a child’s sensibility. They are, however, detailed to the nth degree, with their faces often possessing a subtly disturbing quality. They are visual metaphors and often frame things within their own torsos, such as bugs, stones, and letters. Pantovola uses antique fabrics and incorporates old objects, adding to the storied look of the dolls – the textures of time on them. With enchanting names like the Lady Amanita, Moth Sisters, Fantôme Misérable, and Sea Pearl Keeper, the dolls fascinate and draw you in with their air of sad whimsy and eccentric imaginativeness. In addition to being an immensely talented dollmaker and textile artist, Pantovola is also a painter whose style translates clearly across mediums.

Pantovola states: In my work I love to use time-worn materials such as antique textiles, handmade lace, and curious objects from my collection….My work touches on topics like beauty and decay, culture versus nature, the cycles of life and death, occultism and witchcraft, dreams, femininity, creativity and the re-enchantment of the world, with a strong reference to childhood memories and a certain nostalgia to it.

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Naya Kotko

The fashion photography of Naya Kotko is defined by stunning contrast, bold visual impact, and gorgeous, sumptuous dark costumes. Her imagery often features knife-sharp black crescent moons, Renaissance-style swords, long demonic nails, and red or blue backgrounds against which the monochromatic clothing shows up deliciously. Elaborate headdresses as well as both romantically draped and architectural garments form the mysterious and sibylline attire of the subjects of the photographs, whose faces are often obscured by veiling and cloaking. These semi-visageless figures are intensely dramatic, often being preternaturally extended by the extremely long trains of the outfits, while they contort their poetic, nightmarish hands. Some of the images are deceptively simple and take their effect from striking composition. Some appear to be captured in a kind of void, an atmosphere vaguely but theatrically colored, while others are set amidst the brutal and ornate beauty of natural landscapes defined by sea, rock, or cave. The craggy textures of these settings add depth to the images highlighting the severe black of the clothing. Witchy and eerie, Kotko’s photography is stylishly ominous, occupying a perfect space between surreal and elegant.

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Dark Botanical Jewelry from Dusky Meadow

Dusky Meadow is a handcrafted jewelry brand that takes inspiration from nature, history, and fairy tales. Unique and one of a kind, with a complicated yet raw look, Dominika’s pieces often incorporate images of butterflies and moths, vines and plants, toadstools, ribbon-like branches, moons, and mourning eyes. These wonderfully charming rings and necklaces are sinuous and fluid, but very ornate, like 19th-century household objects. The result is almost finicky, highly encrusted, at the same time having an unfinished naturalness and whimsical imprecision which gives a quality both ethereal and earthy to the pieces. Dominika’s influences range from Victorian accessories, anatomy, Eastern European folklore, Art Nouveau illustrations, to Gothic architecture and celestial bodies. I feel that moonstones are the perfect gem to set off her fantastical designs, and adore her imaginative envisioning of Baba Yaga’s hut with the stars and little gemstone moon in the sky behind it. The lavish creativity, whimsy, and preciousness of Dusky Meadow jewels make them some of the most coveted pieces I’ve lately laid my eyes upon.

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The Domestic Uncanny: Photography by Marianna Rothen

Marianna Rothen’s ultra dreamy, nostalgic photographs explore themes of womanhood, beauty, power, and domestic spheres. Many of them look as if they could have come straight out of the 1970s. With their gorgeous styling, the voluminous retro hairdos of cigarette-wielding housewives, the strange and slightly unnerving spaces that these glamorous beings seem to inhabit, Rothen’s images have a spontaneous feeling of the momentary, candid life caught on the move, yet at the same time a carefully composed, poised look. They are saturated in color and have a lush vagueness – the dreamy fading of the light around windows and skies suggests someone’s loveliest and most undying memories.

Many of Rothen’s photos make use of mannequins, emphasizing the uncanniness of the scenes she is capturing. The results are a mysterious and spectacularly beautiful depiction of the intimacy and eerie violence of a life seemingly lived in domestic obscurity – the drama of a psychological existence made up of husbands, babies, neighbors, girlfriends, isolation, eroticism, rebellion, and psychic death. The playful banditry in several of the tableaux, with the women holding knives and guns, seems to subvert the violent games of little boys – and the fact that only mannequins represent men is a reversal of the perceived doll-like nature of little girls who grow up to be wives and mothers.

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Oracles and Phantasms of Caitlin McCarthy

Caitlin McCarthy is one of the artists whose prints I have the most of in my home. They are eminently frameable, hangable, and delightful. I love her goddess series, which renders feminine deities and figures of folklore from across the world in concise and whimsical portraits. Her drawings also feature characters from horror films, Gothic authors, and Spiritualists. As McCarthy states on her Website, she is fascinated by “Victorian sensibilities and the occult,” and her work portrays “visions of dark dreamy women in the form of seers, mystics, goddesses, and witches.”

McCarthy’s graphite illustrations have an eerie and ethereal feel, sometimes dark, sometimes darling. I like the radiance that comes across in some of her monochromatic works, the sense of an otherworldly glow, and a certain wispy quality, being able to see the strokes of the pencil. The ribbons of ectoplasm that curl out, seance-style, from some of the entranced figures, are also appealing to me. These women’s eyes often appear blind but perhaps gifted with an inner sight. Amidst lit candles floating in midair, in their pointed hats, veils, and headdresses, they dream on in their melancholy bliss.

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Precious Weapons: Jewelry by Ossia Obscure

Dublin-based Ossia Obscure handcrafts beautiful pieces of jewelry, taking the shapes of medieval and ancient weapons, as well as forms in nature and symbols of magic. Among these designs there is a witch’s broomstick, Nordic runes, a cat skull, a pomegranate, teeth and bones, chalices, Celtic battleaxes, and a spiked mace. Saoirse at Ossia Obscure creates new versions of these artifacts, drawing inspiration from fantasy, Gothic imagery, and medieval cultures. Fancifully designed and meticulously crafted, these miniature tools and weapons are each a unique marvel. I love the little details on them, the textures and irregularities. Although they depict brutal and crude objects, I feel that they have a wonderfully quaint, almost friendly look to them.

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Tender Chimera: The Art of Takuya Mitani

Takuya Mitani creates delicate, detailed paintings portraying mysterious youths in a chimerical state. Accompanied by a myriad of strange creatures, flowers, emblematic objects such as Eden-like apples, mystical and heraldic imagery, they seem surreally transforming, or merging into their noble and enigmatic accoutrements. These symbols and articles revolve around and halo the lovely, tranquil beings whose very placidity seems to belie sinister interior layers. There are birds and rabbits and horses, as well as chimerae with their fantastical hybrid forms, and the subjects, too, seem chimerical, always transfigured, metamorphosing, or, as it were, marred by a grotesque yet ethereal blending with other elements in the images. There is also a motif of angels, with arched wings indicating a strange divinity for these tender youthful beings. Meticulously drawn, complexly composed, rendered with an eye to detail and a careful realism, Mitani’s paintings with their almost pretty air are provoking and lulling, combining an intriguing, soft, otherworldly aspect with historical and surrealistic elements.

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