NEW YORK, NY – Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature the original work of GLIL in Life is But a Dream. The exhibition opens May 22, 2018 and runs through June 12,  2018 with an opening reception on Thursday, May 24 from 6-8 pm. Any art lover who enjoys thought-provoking artworks and meeting talented and interesting artists is encouraged to attend.

About the Artist

GLIL’s collage-works have a rawness and honesty about them which at least partly derives from the way they re-purpose old magazines, flyers, and other materials generally considered “waste.” This also makes their works heavily linguistic—and one can read the artworks as much as look at them. In their intricate tessellation of parts, their collages ready the playing field for representing icons with dramatic intensity. Using fragments to create pictorial wholes, the personality behind each icon is brought to light; and viewers feel as though they can enter into the psychological makeup of their cultural heroes.

GLIL’s collage Samurai 2 unpacks like an exercise in free association. Similar to the methodology developed by Sigmund Freud, this composite representation of a cyclopean samurai seems to have absorbed a host of cultural signifiers into itself.  The playful weirdity of the composition incorporates the Egyptian pyramids and Michelangelo’s Adam, as much as a Buddhist temple styled as an epaulette. In this way, the activity of assembling the collage becomes a panoramic study in those minutia of popular culture that the legacy of the Japanese samurai has come to symbolize.

Exhibition Dates: May 22-June 12, 2018

Reception: Thursday May 24, 2018 6-8 PM

Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11:00am – 6:00pm

Gallery Location: 530 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Event URL: https://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/GLIL.aspx

Featured Artists:

toNI Altenstrasser | Maria José Cabral | Margret Carde | Benny De Grove | GLIL | Paciel González | Olga Loschinina | Samantha Messias | Jennifer Morrow | Svetlana Nelson | Olivia O'Keeffe | Gottfried Roemer | Jutta Schulte | Ifat Shatzky | Amber Warren | Satoco Yamamoto | Katja Yoon

About the Exhibition

Life is But a Dream is a group show that explores the surreality of memory and identity in a world too often constructed to resemble a mere product on the shelf of popular culture. Comprising 17 artists, the primary link joining them together is how memory can be reshaped by the imagination. These artists all share in examining the content of what they remember, with social and familial life acting as a lens through which they reexamine recollected moments.

About Agora Gallery

Agora Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery located in the heart of Chelsea’s fine art district in New York. Established in 1984, Agora Gallery specializes in connecting art dealers and collectors with national and international artists. The art gallery’s expert consultants are available to assist corporate and private clients in procuring original artwork to meet their organization’s specific needs and budget requirements. With a strong online presence and popular online gallery, ARTmine, coupled with the spacious and elegant physical gallery space, the work of our talented artists, who work in diverse media and styles, can receive the attention it deserves. Over the years Agora Gallery has sponsored and catered to special events aimed at fostering social awareness and promoting the use of art to help those in need.a