Liberty Realm

The fascinating phantasmal worlds in the work of the artist Cathy Ward

Pulsing and surging with dark energies, Cathy Ward’s mesmerising drawings capture a restlessly inquiring spirit through the meticulous rendering of organic forms. Their mystery, emotional depth, and enveloping sensuality recall an occluded art-historical canon of weird psychedelia, hermetic alchemical illustrations and outsider horror vacui. Liberty Realm presents a broad survey of works ranging from the acclaimed drawings exhibited recently in Phantasmata at The Good Luck Gallery (Los Angeles), Talespinning at the Drawing Center (New York), Romantic detachment at PS1 MOMA (New York), and Utopia at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), to new explorations and insightful glimpses of her earlier output and formative practice. Substantial essays by Doug Harvey and Robert Wallis further untangle these fascinating phantasmal worlds.