The Sedona Arts Center is presenting a special curated international exhibition exploring the theme of Surrealist influence in the contemporary art of women.

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Kelsey Ashe's work placed 2nd in the Juried Exhibition and was noted in particular for 'the epic nature of arts practice'...offer[ing] a new allegory for twenty-first century feminist surrealism with her epic, oceanic film 'Pearls and Blackbirds' (Dr. Catriona McAra, Juror, 31 Women Exhibition, 2020).

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According to Vince Fazio, Executive Director of the center, the exhibitions “Work is stylistically diverse as the Surrealist influence goes well beyond traditional painting and sculpture having an impact on so many subsequent art movements like abstract expressionism, magical realism, collage, assemblage, film and photography.”

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Sedona has significant roots associated with Surrealism due to the influential artists Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning who lived in Sedona intermittently for many productive years from 1943 – 1957. Surrealism was the prevailing modern art movement in 1943 when Peggy Guggenheim launched a special exhibition curated by Max Ernst entitled Exhibition by 31 Women at her Art of This Century gallery in NYC.

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The Sedona Arts Center’s 31 Women Artists exhibition has been curated by Dr. Catriona McAra, University Curator at Leeds Arts University in England. She has published extensively on the art and literature of Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington with a particular interest in feminist aesthetics and surrealist legacies in contemporary practice.

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Dr. McAra selected 25 contemporary women artists who have applied to the exhibition. She will be presenting a Curators Talk at the Sedona Arts Center on January 23, 4 – 6pm “30+1: Dorothea Tanning, Sedona and Contemporary Art” 

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The exhibition will also include historically significant works by six of the women artists who were featured in the original NYC exhibition from the collection of local art historian Mark Rownd, including works by Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Leonor Fini, Hedda Sterne, Sonja Sekula, and Hazel Guggenheim. According to Rownd, “In many ways women are the unsung heroes of contemporary art, creating artworks and actively participating in all aspects of modern art from early on.”