1 ½ col each

Jo-Ellen Trilling, “A Walk In The Haunted Forest,” 2007, oil on canvas, 24 by 20 inches.

1 ½ col each

Jo-Ellen Trilling, “Alligator Amaryllis,” 2007, oil on canvas, 14 by 11 inches.

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MUST RUN 1-11

JO-ELLEN TRILLING’S ‘FAIRYTALES’ AT SPANIERMAN GALLERY w/2 cuts

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NEW YORK CITY — Spanierman Gallery, LLC presents “Paintings by Jo-Ellen Trilling: Fairytales for Our Time,” an exhibition and sale of work by this contemporary artist, whose imaginative narrative scenes evoke the tradition of Magic Realism. The exhibit is on view through February 9.

Well established since the 1970s for her mixed media sculptures, featuring such subjects as lascivious pigs in flamenco costume and leering dogs in gangster suits or leather motorcycle outfits, Trilling expanded her vision into painting in 2001, inspired in part by the events of September 11 and their aftermath. Soon her oils took on a life of their own.

Populated by a cast of animals, toys and magical beings similar to those in her sculptures, her narrative paintings evoke the fairytales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson. Their metaphysical aspects suggest the magical worlds of Alice in Wonderland and the Lord of the Rings.

Inviting the viewer in with seeming innocence and charm, Trilling’s works gradually unfold into a more unsettling and haunting underpinning. Their multiple layers prove the subconscious and reflect the illusive, shifting and troubling nature of contemporary experience While enigmatic, Trilling’s images are also at times allegorical, referring to aspects of the politics and culture of society today.

Trilling’s carefully articulated shapes, vivid colors and love of pattern suggest the influences of Renaissance paintings by such artists as Vittore Carpaccio, Piero della Francesca and Paolo Uccello, as well as by the works of the British Pre-Raphaelites, which carried on their tradition.

Parallels to the children’s book illustrations are suggested by the whimsical qualities of her images, in which animals exude human personas, dolls come alive and aspects of nature take on resemblances to domestic urban forms.

In “The Egg’s Birthday,” Trilling conjures such children’s tales as Elsa Minarik’s Little Bear story “Birthday Soup.” The woodland scene has a Middle-Earthish feel. Yet, eerie uneasiness passes among the guests, who are disengaged from each other, wearing expressions of worry, wariness, distraction or, as in the case of the bear, false surprise.

In “Barbara’s Back Yard in Thompson, Pennsylvania,” Trilling transforms the backyard of her friend Barbara Remington, an illustrator who created the well-known covers for the 1960 paperback edition of the Lord of the Rings, into a fantasy world laced with strangeness and signs of warning.

Drawing on a rich range of references from the worlds of literature to the aisles of megastores, Trilling’s works evoke many interpretations, their humor, imagination and wit often thinly masking messages of more iconic or serious intent.

Avidly sought by collectors, Trilling’s sculptures have been exhibited often and may be found in the Topeka and Shawnee Public Library, Kansas, and the Ito Doll Museum, Japan. This is the first exhibition in New York devoted to Trilling’s oils.

The gallery is at 45 East 58th Street. For information, www.spanierman.com or 212-832-0208.