Keep it Surreal – Salon returns with a little help from some cabaret friends

Characterized by cartoon characters, cult classic films and pop-inspired works of full-blown imagination, the Baton Rouge Gallery’s Surreal Salon Soiree seeks to weave pop surrealism and lowbrow art into the city’s local culture.

The one-night event Jan. 26 brings together wild costumes, live music, interactive exhibits and a juried show, but artwork collected from across the country for the salon will be on display Jan. 2-31, revealing a less conventional but more accessible collection for the gallery.

Jason Andreasen, executive director for Baton Rouge Gallery, says the pop surrealism movement goes by many different names, but it draws from the hot rod culture of the ’50s and ’60s, the graffiti art of the ’80s, a wide range of iconography and a multitude of pop culture.

“It’s a movement back toward figurative work, and it shows off a lot of technical precision,” he says. “People are able to figure out who the characters are and they can bring their own story to it. There’s an illustrative quality to it—more so than other movements.”

Andreasen describes the upcoming soiree as “by far the biggest thing we’ve ever done.”

The fifth annual event will feature a performance by The New Orleans Bingo! Show, music by local electronic musician Matt Cee, a multimedia exhibition by Elevator Projects and performances by contemporary dance-theatre group Of Moving Colors. Guests are encouraged to participate in the surrealism-inspired costume contest to celebrate the show and the artists’ work.

Cee, who has participated in the gallery’s Movies and Music on the Lawn event, says he plans on mixing up his show to suit the unconventional theme, and he aims to get the crowd dancing.

“The gallery has provided me with an amazing opportunity to push my own limits,” Cee says. “I can go up there and wing it and feel the energy of the venue.”

Past soirees have seen attendees dressed in everything from giant shrimp to videogame characters to interpretations of famous artworks. “It’s really taken on a life of its own,” Andreasen laughs. “The first year when we did it, you could tell there was hesitance. That’s gone now, and everyone is in on the joke.”

This year’s juror, N.C. Winters, is a freelance artist and full-time designer and artist from California. Winters says he doesn’t have specific judging criteria for submissions, but he plans to take in the collection as a whole before selecting the most visually powerful pieces.

“How I appreciate work may be different than the average bear,” he says. “My perspective is different from anyone else’s, but having a set of criteria in advance may get thrown out the window when I see the work.”

Winters described his connection to pop-surrealism as a relationship with the culture he grew up with in the ’80s.

“This movement is looked at as the ‘redhead stepchild’ of the art scene,” he says. “It’s not subversive, it’s not traditional and it’s not where the highbrow is. It’s just what’s interesting to us.”

Put on your most creative costume and check out the Surreal Salon at Baton Rouge Gallery, Jan. 26. Artwork entered in the juried show will be on view Jan. 2-31. batonrougegallery.org