Fictitious Realities / Realistic Fictions at Art Palace [Art Preview]

From Fictitious Realities / Realistic Fictions by Elaine Bradford

Fictitious Realities / Realistic Fictions
Saturday, Sept. 6 - Wednesday, October 8
Art Palace (2109 E Cesar Chavez Street)
Opening reception, Saturday, September 6, 8-10pm
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Houston artist Elaine Bradford has knitted handmade sweaters for trees, vacuum cleaners, pickup truck bumpers and groceries. No item is too strange or unlikely (including taxidermied deer heads) to sport one of her cozy yarn creations.

“My sculptures are both sad and amusing,” Bradford explains on her Web site. “[They straddle] the line between reality and comfortable, warm nonsense.”

Some of Bradford’s latest crocheted sculptures will be on display along side other sculptural installations by New Yorker Seth Mittag in the two-person show, Fictitious Realities / Realistic Fictions, opening Saturday at Art Palace.

For this exhibit, the two artists found inspiration from tall tales and fanciful children’s literature, such as Alice in Wonderland and and Through the Looking Glass . Their new work exaggerates scale and plays with perception to show how these childhood narratives shift in meaning and significance when seen through the eyes of an adult.

Fictitious Realities / Realistic Fictions runs through October 8.