This time of year, Jamie Ray’s house transforms into an impromptu costume workshop, her kitchen table overflowing with thrifted clothing, shiny embellishments and glue guns. For most of January, Ray, her husband, Ike Wells, and many of their friends, will pore over her DIY workstations to create zany original wearables. Nope, it’s not a jump-start on Halloween or Mardi Gras. The furious creativity is prep for the Baton Rouge Gallery‘s annual Surreal Salon Soiree.
Held this year on Saturday, Jan. 25, the ticketed event includes live music, an open bar, food trucks and the Surreal Salon 17 show, the gallery’s annual juried pop surrealist exhibit featuring nationwide artists. The Baton Rouge Gallery hosted the first Surreal Salon in 2008, then a one-night only exhibit and party with pop-surrealist works by Louisiana artists.
Since then, the event has morphed into a month-long display culminating in the companion party, a lighthearted, high-energy get-together where participants arrive in outrageous homemade costumes. Like an art show itself, the costumes are created in the spirit of pop surrealism, a lowbrow art form combining elements of surrealism with pop culture.
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Ray, an event planner and former circus artist and aerialist, has attended the Surreal Salon Soiree since she and her husband relocated to Baton Rouge from Rhode Island in 2016.
“That was the first year I went,” says Ray, founder of the now-closed troupe AirSeekers. “I was new in town, I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.”
About 600 guests are expected to attend this year’s gathering, and most of them will be in costume, says Baton Rouge Gallery President and CEO Jason Andreasen.
“It’s the kind of event that, if you don’t come in costume, it’s the last time you’ll do it,” Andreasen says. “Costumes are a big part of it.”
But think beyond the traditional, he advises. Like the pop-surrealist artwork in the show, costumes are an unexpected hodgepodge of imagery and themes. Some patrons even seek inspiration from the works in the show, using their visual elements as a creative launchpad. From wild animals and birds to sneakers and salt shakers, this year’s show gives viewers lots to work with.
“There are a lot of really large pieces, and a lot of color,” Andreasen says.
The exhibit runs Jan. 2-29. It received more than 700 submissions from artists from around the U.S. and Canada, among the most the Baton Rouge Gallery has ever received, Andreasen says. Special guest juror Evan Pricco, editor-in-chief of San Francisco-based Juxtapoz Magazine, selected 63 pieces from 56 artists for the show. Juxtapoz has served as a Surreal Salon media partner for several years.
The event’s costume element might have the potential to intimidate newbies, but Ray encourages would-be attendees to take an “anything goes” approach.
“A lot of times I’m just walking around my house for something to put on my head,” she says. “It’s anything and everything.”
Rather than buying new items, Ray says she tries to keep her costumes sustainable, often picking up used clothing, accessories and household items from thrift stores. None of her costumes require a sewing machine, just a glue gun or Velcro, she says.
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While Ray was mum on her costume for this year’s fete, past looks have included a “mer-bird,” a silvery mermaid-bird hybrid that included a birdcage headpiece. She’s also riffed on the all-seeing eye, a common motif in pop surrealism.
“I always try to be as outrageous as I can,” Ray says.
The Surreal Salon Soiree features an open beer and wine bar, live music from Massachusetts-based circus-punk band Bella’s Bartok and music from DJ Otto Orellana. Food will be available for purchase from food trucks. The event is held in partnership with the LSU School of Art. Tickets start at $40 for members and $50 for the public, and are available through Baton Rouge Gallery.