Surrealism

As we enter 2025, I find myself increasingly drawn to surrealism. Recently, I purchased The World New Made: Figurative Painting in the Twentieth Century from Jaberwocky Bookshop in Newburyport along with Gauguin Portraits. 

I’ve been studying these abstracted depictions of the human form, but something else catches my attention: the dates for each painting. How did it feel to be human in 1945? What did these artists perceive, and how can I—80 years later—express that same feeling?

It’s this sense of historical distance that leads me to wonder about the strange, almost mythic figures emerging in my newest paitnings: Oligarchus Atratus, an anthropomorphic vision of a pink flamingo torso, and the invasive subspecies of Sapien Oligarchus—both of which have been spotted consolidating their wealth along the coast of South Florida.

The name Atratus refers to being “dressed in black,” a term originally used in the scientific classification of vultures.

Oligarchus Atratus was first identified in 2025, though genomic iterations of this strange creature can be traced back through nearly every civilization over the last 20,000 years.

Oligarchus Atratus
26x60 in
Acrylic on canvas
Kasey Child