Bogus Gallery presents the next exhibition in our gallery program: Chimera in the Grass, curated by resident artist and curator Isabel Pardo (@isabel.pardo.art).

Featuring |
Jules Sease (@jules_sease)
Jack Novosel (@temperdia)
Lo Younge (@aquarium_pig)

📍Bogus Gallery Studios
Copycat Building 1511 Guilford Ave. Baltimore, MD

🗓️Opening June 13th 6-9pm

🗓️Open during events and by appointment June 13- July 6
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Chimera in the Grass presents the work of three artists utilizing a zoomorphic lexicon to explore their transmasculine identities. In their paintings, Jack Novosel, Jules Sease, and Lo Younge deftly compose intimate stories with their chosen animal symbols, examining their respective relationships to the world through creatures caught between wildness and domesticity.

The Mythic chimera- a fire-breathing combination of a goat, a lioness, and a serpent that forms a single beast- became an adopted name for any monster composed of different animals. Later, it lent its name to an eponymous biological identification for an organism with cells from two different sources. Ultimately, the word evolved to define a fabricated fantasy, a delusion. The name itself suggests a multi-faceted identity, a “chimera” in itself: a sum of many parts redefined by history.

Many of the featured works depict a creature on the precipice of action or frozen in conflict, invoking the contradictions of transcending societal standards, the internal and external battles one must face to find agency, and the relationship between instinct and learned behavior when searching for connection. While deeply introspective, these paradoxical works reach to the viewer for empathy and, most importantly, prompt reflection on one’s own relationship with power and nature.