"DE DOMO DIABOLI"

Stephen Romano Gallery is thrilled to announce the exhibition "DE DOMO DIABOLI" (The Devil's House) in association with The Living Gallery Outpost in New York City's East Village.

The exhibition celebrates Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) 2017 and All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) 2017 by curating together some of the most celebrated contemporary and historical artists whose subject is the art of the esoteric, the old ways and folkloristic magic.

The exhibition will feature a selection of newly discovered and never seen before photographic works from the 1920's by William Mortensen, whom Ansel Adams dubbed "The Anti-Christ". These works were unseen for the past 80 years and originate from the artist's first wife's estate, and are exclusive to Stephen Romano Gallery. Pictured above is a photograph William Mortensen took of actress Fay Wray which once discovered by Faye Wray's devout Mormon mother, she had him smash all the glass negatives and had Mortensen excommunicated from Hollywood. Pictured below is a suite of three photographs demonstrating Mortensen's mastery of the projected image, The work depicts" Lucifer and the Lost Souls in Hell", each figured has been projected onto the paper individually. This work has never been exhibited before.

The exhibition also presents for the first time ever a suite of Spirit photographs and associated ephemera from the renowned CAMP SILVER BELLE, a Spiritualist summer camp situated at Mountain Springs Hotel in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. In her séances camp leader Ethel Post-Parrish claimed to materialize her spirit guide an Indian girl known as Silver Belle, which were discovered to be fraudulent mediumship, and had been exposed in various newspapers. Before exposures, the camp took in up to a million dollars a year from aristocrats from the east coast who sought out a spiritual experience. The photographs taken by Jack Edwards are exhibited for the first time ever.

Jack Edwards Spirit Photos from Camp Silver Belle, circa 1940's

Also on view are newly discovered Spirit photographs by William Hope (1863–1933), one of the main pioneers of Spirit Photography, from the 1920's. William Hope was a member of the well known spiritualists group, the Crewe Circle. During his photography sessions, Hope would sometimes carry out prayers and religious hymns as a means to cloak for his fraudulent operations. A 1969 entry for Hope in The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography described him as "undoubtedly a schizophrenic", seeming to be at once honest and witty and on the other hand a bogus medium. The art of WIlliam Hope has gained notoriety in the past few years with features on the artist on CNN, The Guardian, NPR, Buzzfeed, among many others.

William Hope (1863–1933) Spirit Photos

Participating contemporary artists include Lori Field, Barry William Hale, Matthew Dutton,
Caitlin McDonagh, Ken Weaver, Lizz Lopez, Tiffany Hsiang, Alexis Karl, Anaïs Delsol, Nyahzul Blanco,
Ra Friedman, Alessandro Keegan, Luciana Vasconcelos, Josh Stebbins, Dolorosa De La Cruz,
Kim Bo Yung, Linnea Strid, Colin Christian, Erna KD, Vincent Castiglia, Samuel Gliner, Damien Michaels,
Soey Milk, Cendrine Ravoni, Aeron Alfrey, Teiji Hayama, India Evans, John D. Monteith, Ray Robinson,
Jaya Suberg, Charlotte Rodgers, Lukasz Grochocki, Vivien Masters, Lena Viddo, Orryelle Defenestrate,
Travis Lawrence, Tine Kindermann, Brittany Markert, Mario Mercier, Francesca Nardi, Nicholas Syracuse.

Cendrine Rovini "The Black Tree"

Also featured in the exhibition are works by Jacob Bohme, Darcilio Lima, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, John Everard, Wolfgang Grasse, Walter Bird,

Vernacular and Press photography, Manuscript and Grimoire, folk art and more of the unexpected ..

NOT. TO. BE. MISSED.

VERY SHORT RUN - October 30 - November 4 (the blink of an eye, like eternity itself.)

for further information and images please contact Stephen Romano romanostephen@gmail.com

n.b. works illustrated are in some cases representative of the artists, and not nesscarily included in the exhibition.

The LIVING GALLERY

Stephen Romano Biography.

Stephen Romano has been in the art business since 1989 when he began working for the late legendary Canadian art dealer Walter Moos in Toronto. Shortly afterwards, Stephen Romano was hired as assistant director of the 49th Parallel Gallery in New York City, then followed a series of engagements with prominent galleries such as Marylyn Pearl Gallery, Miriam Shiell Gallery, The Ricco Maresco Gallery in New York, where Stephen served as Gallery Manager for 8 years. For the next ten years from 2004 through 2014, Stephen Dealt privately and played a pivotal role in building some of the most significant collections of Self Taught and Outsider Art, particularly sourcing masterworks by Henry Darger, Charles Dellschau and Martin Ramirez.

In 2013, Stephen Romano produced the first ever book on Charles Dellschau which included the final published essay by Thomas McEvilley. The book was awarded vast critical acclaim as being of the highest standard, and established Dellschau as an outsider artist in the same Parthenon as Henry Darger, Adolph Wolfli and Martin Ramirez.

In July 2015 Stephen Romano curated "Opus Hypnagogia" at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, which received a 12 paragraph review in the New York Times.

In 2014, Stephen Romano opened an eponymous gallery in Dumbo Brooklyn where important exhibitions were mounted by William Mortensen, Colin Christian, Darcilio Lima, as well as extravagantly themed group exhibitions. The Gallery moved to Bushwick in 2015 and continued presenting museum quality exhibitions, icluding the highly acclaimed "Magica Sexualis" and "Saint Bowie". Stephen Romano Gallery published a series of catalogs complimentary to it's exhibition programme on artists such as William Mortensen, Darcilio Lima, El Gato Chimney, Colin Christian, Rithika Merchant, Jel Ena, and included essays by such luminaries as David Ebony, Robert Morgan, Pamela Grossman, Alison Meyer, Samuel Gliner of Between Mirrors and Decadence Darling.

Since the temporary closure of the gallery in Brooklyn, Stephen Romano Gallery has collaborated with major cultural institutions such as the MET Breuer and Reina Sophia Museum in presenting the works of Brazilian artist Darcilio Lima, as well as participated in art fairs including SCOPE and The Outsider Art Fair. Stephen Romano Gallery will present a one person exhibition of William Mortensen's art curated by Barry William Hale at the Dark MOFO festival in 2018, as well as an upcoming presentation of the Art of Charles Dellschau with details forthcoming.

This is the first collaborative exhibition between The Living Gallery and Stephen Romano Gallery.

for further information and images please contact Stephen Romano romanostephen@gmail.com