Fantastic Worlds

How do we imagine the future? What other kinds of realities are possible? What would happen if time and space could bend, stop, or fast-forward?

From Science Fiction, to Magical Realism, to Surrealism, artists, filmmakers, and writers have long turned to the fantastic to ponder these questions, using vivid imaginative stories and imagery to open portals into other worlds. Sometimes these works provide routes to escape, offering transportation along a whimsical journey full of textures, shapes, and forms that defy everyday reality. Other works breathe magic into our daily life by animating and transforming household objects into exploratory creatures in an otherwise normal setting.

Through exploring these different avenues of the fantastic, each of the works is a playful invitation to imagine and build worlds, new experiences, and ways of seeing. This generative and exploratory aspect of the fantastic is why historically, especially during challenging times of economic crisis and war, these artistic strategies have often surged to grapple with uncertainty, change, and the large, complicated question of the future. By offering an outlet of creative investigation that does not conform to the boundaries of our surroundings, the works in Fantastic Worlds express both the desire and potential to construct new pathways forward and challenge existing assumptions or barriers.

Curated by Robin Lynch

Curator/Manager of Travelling Exhibitions Northwest

Feature image:

K. Gwen Frank, Body and Soul, 1994, Etching, Aquatint on Paper, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Featured Artists:

Greg Arnold, Patricia Askren, Dale Beaven, Derek Besant, Sean Caulfield, John K. Esler, Mark Farand, Noel Heard, K. Gwen Frank, Alice Mansell, Lyndal Osborne, Pat Riddell-Hamon, Ricardo Sanchez-Clague, Akiko Taniguchi, Bruce Wiltshire and Richard Yates.