If you've ever looked at a painting and wished its fantastical creatures could just... walk right out of the canvas, then Leonora Carrington was probably on your wavelength. The legendary Surrealist, who gave us everything from whimsical beasts to deeply unsettling dreamscapes, is now officially represented by the global powerhouse Almine Rech gallery.
This isn't just a fancy handshake; it's a partnership with the Consejo Leonora Carrington (that's her son's foundation, for the uninitiated) that will fling her work into the view of collectors and art lovers across major cities like Paris, London, Shanghai, and New York. Because apparently, the world needs more mythical creatures in bronze.
From Canvas to Concrete (or, you know, Bronze)
The gallery is kicking things off with a bang at Art Basel in June, where they'll unveil a bronze sculpture Carrington first modeled in 2010. Imagine a slender woman with sun rays for a crown — that's La Hija del Minotauro (The Minotaur's Daughter), a figure that first danced into existence in a 1953 painting now residing at MoMA. It's like a character jumping straight from a beloved book into a movie, but with more artistic gravitas.
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Start Your News DetoxFollowing that, a solo exhibition will open in September at Almine Rech's Paris Turenne location. This show, a collaboration with the Consejo and art advisory firm Rossogranada, promises to be a deep dive into Carrington's wildly diverse universe: paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries, and even her writings. Because why stick to one medium when your imagination is clearly operating on a different plane of existence?
Carrington, who passed in 2011, spent the last 17 years of her life translating her imaginative creatures into three-dimensional bronze figures and masks. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying in the best possible way. Her sculptures have been quietly gaining traction in museums recently, with some even currently on display at L'Space Gallery in New York.
Almine Rech is keen to highlight Carrington's fascination with mythology, especially Celtic myths, and the occult. She was, like many good Surrealists, utterly captivated by the subconscious and the glorious, often nonsensical world of dreams. Born in England, her entire career got a jolt after visiting the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, where she hobnobbed with fellow dream-weavers like Max Ernst.
But here’s the kicker: Carrington famously refused to be neatly categorized or, worse, confined to a traditional role. "I didn't have time to be anyone's muse," she once declared. "I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist." And honestly, that's the kind of dedication to one's craft we can all get behind. Her extraordinary independence, as Almine Rech put it, shines through every piece.
