REVIEWS
Every physical aspect of these works is small: the dimensional scale, the brushstrokes, the slight figures and meticulous detailing. But once the viewer is asked to step as near as possible to the canvas, a seemingly effervescent opening draws us to become involved in a realm of impossibility, generally reserved for most notably romantic audiences. It feels almost indulgent. But admittedly, any effort to remain distant and untransfixed by such opulent imagery is entirely wasted.
Chicago Art Map ,October 2009
The Murmur of Pearls
Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery
. . .
Litherland is clearly a storyteller but she has not given away the answers to the riddles present in her world. We set out on a kind of scavenger hunt, searching for clues, collecting the gifts embedded deeply into the paintings only for those willing to take the time. She is an architect, with her short, deliberate application of paint - a movement that clearly comes from the fingertips rather than shoulder or even wrist. She is in control, building a reality ever better suited for the unknown than ours.
- Elise Goldstein, October 2009
ART News October 1996
Gina Litherland
Solo show at Gruen Galleries, Chicago
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.
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.
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All images copyright 2007 Gina Litherland.