Gina Litherland

REVIEWS

ARTnews October 1996

CHICAGO

Gina Litherland

GRUEN GALLERIES

The Animal Bridegroom, 1996, oil on masonite, 16"x 20"

Gina Litherland is not only a painter. She is also a kind of medium, whose works grant access to a bizarre yet beautiful supernatural world that is at once spiritual, sensual, and sometimes more than a bit sinister.

Celtic mythology, with its communion of animal, plant, and human imagery, provides the wellspring of symbolism that nourishes much of Litherland's best work. Titles such as Epona and Beltane are direct references to this mythology. The former pays homage to the patron goddess of horsemen, while the latter alludes to a festival of purification by fire.

One of the artist's most stunning paintings, Bird Queen (1996), refers to the form-changing ability of beings in Celtic myth. This small, meticulously detailed, jewel-like oil-on-masonite panel portrays a Max Ernst kind of creature. Possessing a brilliantly crested bird's head on a woman's body, the painting's malevolent subject manipulates a marionette that is, in turn, a bird with a woman's head.

Such strikingly dramatic transformations have the effect of lending a surreal quality to Litherland's work. Cats, birds, and fish can sometimes sport human faces. Human figures are often enhanced with animal parts or exotic foliage. Even rock and coral seem to be composed of living tissue.

Another constant in many of the artist's works is a tall, slender, pale-skinned woman whose long red hair sometimes suggests tree branches, flames, or snakes. At various times, she is depicted shoulder-deep in a reflective pool of inky black water, asleep in a a bed outdoors under the gaze of three white horses, and as the ravishing bride of a wolfman. Looking very much like Litherland herself, this protean creature is the guide through these wonderfully strange goings-on, as if, like the hero and heroine of many a fairy tale, the artist could not resist testing her powers on herself.

GARRETT HOLG

WISCONSIN T R I E N N I A L CATALOGUE

MADISON ART CENTER, 1999

Cat's Cradle, 1997, oil on masonite, 16" x 20"

Litherland's intricately rendered paintings are animated by her interest in fairy tales and folklore, myth, children's games as social rituals, and a concern for the natural world. In Litherland's surrealistic works, fantastical figures with human and animal or botanical traits inhabit other-worldly landscapes. The small animals that reside in the artist's home and immediate outdoor environment often appear as characters in these visual narratives. Inspired in part by experiences in the artist's life, these curious scenarios expose the hidden connections between human beings and nature, and suggest ways in which we come to know ourselves and our place in the world.

SHERI CASTELNUOVO

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