IMAGINARY REAL: Celebrating 100 years since the first Surrealist Manifesto

CCA Galleries International is pleased to present an exhibition surrounded by surrealism with local and renowned international artists who delve into the subconscious and bring their imagery to the surface of reality.

 

It is 100 years since Andre Breton wrote the first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 calling for a reimagination of the real to dispel the kind of 'rationalism' that had brought about the First World War.  There was no fixed tenet of surrealism, rather multiple experimenters came together with a belief in changing how we might approach our experience of the world. What draws them together is the idea of an interior and exterior reality as two elements in a process of conflict and unification, a mission to integrate the products of the unconscious mind with conscious life and to open ourselves up to the possibilities of contradiction.
Surrealism attracted some of the most interesting artists of the day whose spirit of revolt can be traced through the intervening years and touches upon many artists working now. It is with delight that CCA Galleries International can bring together a wonderful group of artists who draw out the important threads of the early Surrealists. From reconfiguring the objects of everyday life to turning prescribed ideas about sexuality upside down, choosing to tap directly into the unconscious or juxtapose contradictory elements to create a new reality, to cut up or zoom into the realities of contemporary life. Playing with the semiotics and meaning of things these artists challenge the fictions of truth and the realities of our times. 

The show will be open until Friday April 26, 2024.