CABARET ROOM: LEON WALLER: THE LIGHT THAT DREAMING LEAVES, 6:00 PM

SEPTEMBER 14, 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Pangea is pleased to present the 4^th installation of original works by local artist Leon Waller in the Cabaret Room. This installation also marks a decade since Leon’s first installation at Pangea in 2014.

The notion of dreaming is not a new theme in Leon’s work. The worlds he creates have always had a dream-like quality—not only through the imagery, but through the situations and other-worldly views that often do not fit within our understanding of physics and our sense of spacetime. He bends those rules and creates complicated compositions that bring the viewer into his mythological world of characters, situations, and symbols.

Ritual has always been a prominent notion in the settings Leon creates. He often depicts figures taking part in a process or a task. These can be simple tasks with a ritualistic overtone, such as the handling of a precious vessel. Whether the setting is a dream, or a depiction of a fictional world is up to the viewer to interpret. Despite these other-worldly qualities, the settings, actions, and gestures are all familiar. His goal is to provide enough information to set the stage and allow the viewer to take it from there.

“My work is influenced in part by traditional West African and traditional Japanese art. In the natural world, I have always been inspired by fish and bird forms, and I often place figures in the atmosphere of a dream, and this is very much a connection to the drama of Japanese Noh. I like to allow the underlying drawing to show through, and I often leave some areas of the surface untouched, and sometimes unfinished—areas where viewers can make assumptions and fill in the blanks. Working on black paper allows color to pop and marks to stand out, and my use of the nude figure makes the subject suggest a timeless quality.”

Throughout Leon’s more than 50 years as an artist, he has always used many different media to explore his dream worlds. He usually works against a black background, and builds content with white charcoal, which is then filled in with various media. His recent works are mostly painted with a pigment that is suspended in milk protein, called casein.

Please RSVP to nightletters@juno.com

To make a reservation call: 212-995-0900

or send an e-mail to: info@pangeanyc.com (click here)