Adding a little fantasy

Drawing the Slightly Uneasy is a showcase of emerging Portland and New York artists who have found that they are drifting creatively toward a more fantasy-prone sense of inspiration. The sort of depictions on display are about as varied as one would expect to find at a group show. The difference is that the work is held together not only by the theme but also by the type of art work itself: drawings.

Curated by popular northwest artist MK Guth, Drawing the Slightly Uneasy gives a well-rounded introduction to the world of fantasy and drawn art. Worksound Gallery owner Moudou Dieng describes the exhibit as “classical drawings that touch on the wall of fantasy.”

“The drawings are an expression of the fantasies that people can have,” Dieng said. “The drawings may be showing some type of architecture or an animal but behind the surface there is something abstract.”

The point here isn’t to be gross, creepy or weird like the title may suggest. Instead, the idea is to create something that is grounded in reality, something that the viewer knows and understands already, and then is taken to that next step.

Worksound Gallery has been around the Portland scene since August of 2007, focusing on artists with talent rather than artists with a big name. Dieng considers his gallery “a laboratory where visual art meets poetry, film and performance art in a noncommercial environment.” The gallery hosts three to four multi-media expositions a month, most of which feature emerging local artists.

Eight artists make up the team behind Drawing the Slightly Uneasy, evenly distributed between Portlanders and New Yorkers. The roster includes Bill Adams, Nicolaii Dornstauder, Tania Cross, Patrick Kelly, Michael Lee, Frank Parga, Nicole Eriko Smith and Lynn Yarn. Many of the artists have impressive bodies of work and have exhibited in galleries across the country.

Parga’s drawings stand out as particularly intriguing, with his newest work being presented as a collection of pieces that seemingly take place in a landscape so barren it could likely be the bottom of the ocean. It’s a grouping of imagery that reeks of mysticism. It is clearly of this world, but leaves you wondering what the hell is going on. In a 2001 piece, Parga drew a beautiful nude Native American woman floating away with a trail of visible bubble-like flatulence streaming from her perfectly round rump. For the purpose of Drawing the Slightly Uneasy one can only hope for more.

All of the artists have brought something completely different to the table and collaborate nicely. Smith’s pagan-esque drawings of canoodling human-animal hybrids are simplistically brilliant. The mysterious hidden messages behind Kelly’s solid black shells are eerie, and the peephole into the eye of a dark-haired creature will continue to stare back even after your eyes have gazed away.

Drawing the Slightly Uneasy is an exhibition experience in rare form. While the show isn’t meant to reveal the problems in society or the tragedy of love, the drawings challenge the eye to see the world as a moldable entity full of mystery and, most of all, fantasy.