Continuing through May 20, 2012
“The Funny Ones” is not exactly funny in the tickle your funny bone sense, but it is uncanny, surreal, and fantastical. More along the lines of the grotesqueries of commedia dell’arte, the works here offer biting commentary. Victoria Carlson’s “Spring is Busting Out all Over” and John Casey’s “Double Standard” are representative of this exhibit, all works coming from the Diane and Sandy Besser Collection. Carlson’s painting of a baby-headed adult foolishly stepping in the path of an oncoming train might bring a chuckle, but it’s hard to get away from the sense of immaturity and the infantile absurdity of its central figure. “Double Standard” speaks of monstrous internal struggles within us all.
Lauren Ari’s “Dinner with Galarg,” in which the artist has taken a page from Funk and Wagnell’s illustrated dictionary, incorporates her own painted imagery with the original illustrations, expertly crafting the mix into a viable scene. Like outsider art, it brings a visionary element to a selection that is much more than just funny.
