presents

Rob Bowen "Pink - Pollination" 2015

Barry William Hale "Pomba Gira Sigill" 2015 vinyl wall installation.

"LEXICON INFERNALI"

press:

Inaugural exhibition in the new Bushwick location featuring the works of gallery artists and invited guest artists:

El Gato Chimney, Colin Christian, Jel Ena, A.W. Sommers, Barry William Hale, Lori Field, Loic Lucas, Alessia Iannetti, Cecilia Avendaño Bobillier, Caitlin Karolczak, Limor Gasko
Caitlin McCormack, Shawn Thornton, David Molesky, Cendrine Rovini. Hunter Stabler, Stephanie Lucas, Steven Bradshaw, Elizabeth Shupe, Gigi Chen, Nyahzul Blanco, Kalyana Thiru
Bree Jonson, Ray Robinson, Samuel D Gliner, Eric Richardson, Andreas Cellarius, Darcilio Lima, A. Fiorello, Heiko Müller, Charles Dellschau, William Mortensen, Brittany Markert
Erna Kd, Matthew Dutton, Romney De Hooghe, Jen Jones, Ellen Stagg, Jacob Bohmer, Rob Bowen, Masea Shimoichi, Joel Lorand, Kim Bo Yung, Tine Kindermann.

September 3 - October 15 2015

Opening reception Thursday September 3 2015 6 - 9 pm

in association with the opening reception of

RITHIKA MERCHANT "LUNA TABULATORUM" the artist will be present.

Stephen Romano Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of it's new

location in the Bushwick district of Brooklyn.

Bushwick is undoubtedly the fasted growing and most energized area for galleries in New York City. After deciding to relocate the gallery from it's former location in DUMBO Brooklyn, Stephen Romano Gallery temporarily paused it's program to work on an extraordinary independent curatorial project with Morbid Anatomy Museum as well as seek an environment conducive to serious discourse about challenging art.

Gallery Director Stephen Romano says " It (Dumbo) seemed inundated by one amateur pop up show after another, to the point where i felt quality activity was being drowned out and people couldn't tell the difference anymore. Out of respect for the artists' integrity, while the gallery prospered and attracted a very impressive amount of media attention, I wanted to re-contextualize the gallery's program somewhere that put that integrity in the forefront. While Manhattan's Lower East Side didn't offer any opportunities that I felt could hold our programming, and Chelsea seemed to be undergoing an exodus, the obvious alternative to look at was Bushwick, so we, the gallery and the artists, decided to give it a chance. While we've had to scale down our physical presence, the decision came down to where was there a sense of excitement and discovery. We are all very energized by this move, we are in the eye of a hurricane of a cultural renaissance! "

Images from "Dictionnaire Infernal" by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy, 1863

The inaugural exhibition "Lexicon Infernali" makes a nod to the 17th century French book "The Infernal Dictionary", of which an original rare copy of the coveted 6th edition will be on display, an illustrated catalogue of apparitions of the underworld. The exhibition functions in a similar manner, as an encyclopedic lexicon of artists whose works have a shamanic sensibility, whose art is highly personalized - as are the works of genuine outsider artists (Stephen Romano's biography includes several years as manager of a prominent "Outsider Art Gallery" in Manhattan. Romano also produced with DAP a well received monograph on Charles A.A. Dellschau of which Tom Paterson wrote in Raw Vision magazine "(Dellschau is) widely acknowledged as an outsider art master in the same league as Darger, Wolfli and Ramirez."), vernacular photography, folk art, as well as works by several international contemporary artists who are producing some of the most challenging works today.

Stephanie Lucas "Welcome" 2014

The way the gallery integrates these different art forms within a single exhibition, often giving attention to works who's subjects are from the darker realms of the psyche and human experience, has brought the gallery accolades from the international art press community. Stephen Romano gallery has hosted several high profile exhibitions, including "WILLIAM MORTENSEN: AMERICAN GROTESQUE", the most ambitious retrospective of the "Father of Pictorialism" and according to Ansel Adams "The Anti-Christ" of modern photography mounted in the past 25 years. As well, Stephen Romano Gallery commissioned and produced the exhibition "COLIN CHRISTIAN: TRYPOPHOBIA" an exhibition which earned several accolades such as one of the top 10 exhibitions by Hi-Fructose magazine. The gallery's most recent exhibition was "EL GATO CHIMNEY "DE RERUM NATURA", which gave serious prominent international attention to the young artist's first ever one person show in the USA . Also noteworthy was a six month long ever changing exhibition of historical, vernacular, outsider, and contemporary art called "IN MISSA INTERFECTIONIS" which began a discourse of the artist as a medium or messenger of occult, shamanic or other worldly content. This theme continued with the exhibition "OPUS HYPNAGOGIA: Sacred Spaces of the Visionary and Vernacular" curated by Stephen Romano at the Morbid Anatomy Museum July 18 - October 18 2015. The exhibition was well received with reviews in Hi Fructose Magazine, Dirge, Widewalls, Brooklyn Magazine, Between Mirrors, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and many others. Esteemed Los Angeles writer Decadence Darling wrote of this exhibition:

David Molesky "Acteon" 2015 oil on canvas

David Scott Evans "Transformations" 1879 oil on canvas

"This exhibition of artwork from artists such as Charles Dellschau and William Mortensen are works beyond the obscure and taboo. Those are words your physical senses uses to categorize the experience your conscious mind is not structured to understand. Each work is a step away from the perceived world into the perceived self–beyond the perceived self into the self. It is an exhibition curated to facilitate an inner-body experience while having an outer-body experience. It is a chance to observe your own death while still living and to understand that the word death is just your conscious mind trying to categorize an experience beyond what it is capable of experiencing."

Charles A.A. Dellschau HASBEENWILLBEES 1920 watercolor and collage with flap.

Erna Kd "Sorceress" 2014

Stephen Romano is very excited to open the gallery with this exhibition, concurrently with a solo show of Rithika Merchant "Luna Tabulatorum". For further information please contact Stephen Romano at 646 709 4724 or romanostephen@gmail.com

"LEXICON INFERNALI" EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS:

Cendrine Rovini - Kâlî, 2014,

Cendrine Rovini - Le lait de l'eau, 2014

Elizabeth Shupe "Green Ophelia" 3D printed articulated figure with mixed media 2015.

Andreas Cellarius - THEORIA VENERIS ET MERCURII, 1660 Representation (of the motions) of Venus and Mercury.

G. Maillard Kesslere "The Gorilla" Silver Print 1925

Eric Richardson "Coronation" 2015

Samuel D. Gliner "Duality" 2015

Jen Jones "Comjure" 2015 oil on paper

Hunter Stabler - "Baba Yaga Misquotes The Face To Steeleye Span", laser-cut paper mounted to plexi, 2015
" Garmr", hand-cut paper mounted to plexi, 2015

Lori Field - "Maneater" 2015

Lori Field - "The Bride" 2015

Limor Gasko "Sheep Head" 2010 oil on canvas.

Caitlin McCormack as yet Untitled work in progress 2015

Romeyn de Hooghe "MYTHOLOGY-ICONOLOGY-CHARON-TYPHO-HYROGLYPHIC", 1735

Nyahzul Blanco "Day For Night" 2015

Barry William Hale "Pomba-gira Rainha - Grande Pontos Riscado" 2015

Bree Jonson "Can You See The Island Yet?" 2015

William Blayney (1917 - 1986) "Comming Of Christs Kingdom" undated c. 1960

William Blayney (1917 - 1986) "Kathryn on Radio" undated c. 1960

Loic Lucas "Phialella Zappai" 2014

Rene Pierre Allain 2015


Matthew Dutton - WHITE OWL SHAMAN 2015 Mixed Media sculpture	Steven Bradshaw - Untitled work in progress 2015

Alessia Iannetti "Bird Nest Child" 2013 Pencil and watercolor on paper

Joel Lorand "Personages" colored pencil on paper 2013

Brittany Markert "Behind Closed Doors", 2015 "Untitled" 2015

Darcilio Lima (1944 - 1991) "Untitled (The Prince)" 1972

Gigi Chen "Worship" 2015 colored pencils on paper

Shawn Thornton "Brahmastra for A New Age (UFO/Time Machine)" April 2010 - August 2013

Ellen Stagg "Hollis Blue and Purple" 2014 Polaroid

Black and White Burmese Yantra Book Early 20th Century.

Jel Ena "The Devil In Love" 2015

A. Fiorello (Dates Unknown) "Budgets Measure The WIll To Kill" c. 1960 - 80 painted plaster .

Heiko Müller "Vom Teufel die Schwiegermutter" 2015

A.W. Sommers ""Variation on a Landsknecht V." 2015

Tine Kindermann "Devil Girl" 2015

Colin Christian "Squirm"

Caitlin Karolczak "Unspoken"

Unknown Maker - Devil Woman photograph - c. 1920's

EL Gato Chimney "The Good Proportion" 2015 Watercolor on paper

William Mortensen "A Tantric Priest" 1932

William Mortensen "Woman with Skull" c. 1924

William Mortensen "Paganini - The Devil's Violinist" 1930

About Stephen Romano Gallery

Stephen Romano Gallery is a new addition to the Brooklyn art gallery community, having opened its doors in April of 2014 in Dumbo and presently relocating to Bushwick, opening with an exhibition of works by Rithika Merchant in September of 2015.

Prior to opening the current gallery, Stephen Romano was a private art dealer for 15 years specializing in masters of self-taught and visionary art such as Henry Darger, Martin Ramirez, Charles Dellschau, Bill Traylor, Darcilio Lima, and many others. The Gallery's most recent exhibition El Gato Chimney’s “De Rerum Natura” was well received and reviewed, as was the preceding exhibition "Trypophobia" by Colin Christian. Stephen Romano Gallery also mounted the most ambitious exhibition of works by pictorialist photographer William Mortensen to coincide with the release of the book "American Grotesque" published by Feral House.

Stephen Romano has been a participant in many art fairs including PULSE, The Metro Show, and the Outsider Art Fair.

In 2013, Stephen Romano produced a seminal 330-page monograph on visionary artist CHARLES A.A. DELLSCHAU (1830 - 1923) designed by Marquand Books and distributed by DAP. The book generated several positive reviews from a wide variety of publications such as Bookforum, Raw Vision Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, Antiques and the arts and Design Observer, among many others. With an introduction by Stephen Romano, the book features the final published essay by renowned art writer Thomas McEvilley, as well as contributions from the founder of The Museum of Everything, James Brett, and the curator of Smithsonian Museum of Aerospace, Thomas Croutch.

In the same year, Romano also published the first ever post-mortem catalog of works by Brazilian visionary Darcilio Lima and most recently a catalogue of an previously unknown photographic series from 1925 by William Mortensen entitled "A Pictorial Compendium of Witchcraft," with an introduction by A.D. Coleman and essay by Tom Pattersen. Most recently, Stephen Romano Gallery had the honor of publishing a catalog of works by Pavel Kraus with an essay by David Ebony, as well as a catalog for Chinese artist Lu Zhang with essay by Robert C. Morgan. In 2015, the gallery produced a catalog of the "TRYPOPHOBIA" exhibition by Colin Christian with texts by Kris Kuksi, Allison C. Meier and Samuel D. Gliner. The most recent catalog was the gallery published was on Italian artist El Gato Chimney with texts by Martin Wittfooth, Pamela Grossman and Michela D'Acquisto.

recent press .

For further information and visuals please contact Stephen Romano at 646 709 4725 romanostephen@gmail.com