Sep 7th 2012

Michael Rea: The Last Catholic

@ Ebersmoore

350 North Ogden Ave, Suite 100 Chicago, IL 60607

Opening Friday, September 7th, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Tuesday, October 16th

EBERSMOORE is pleased to announce its upcoming solo exhibition with Gallery Artist Michael Rea. This will be the artist’s second solo with the gallery.

Michael Rea presents The Last Catholic, a hybridization of demon possession, receptive anal zoophilia and Catholic dogma. This body of work culminates from three specific sources: The Exorcist, by W.P Blatty, and subsequent film in 1973 by W. Friedkin; the 2007 documentary Zoo by R. Devor; and the artist’s own experience of being raised Catholic.

While pregnant with Rea, his mother saw The Exorcist for the first time. Rea would later watch the film in his teenage years and become an instant fan of the story of a young girl whom is possessed by a demon and undergoes an exorcism. To better understand the film and the mythology that surrounded it, Rea pursued the book. Years later, Rea stumbled upon Zoo, a documentary retelling the story of Kenneth Pinyan – aka Mr. Hands – a member of a subculture of men who engage in sexual acts with horses. While instantly drawn to these two graphic tales, Rea has since struggled to make sense of his interest in and desire for these abject films. The reconciliation between these narrative forms is the grey area of things that enter each of us against our better judgment. While the list of things we wish we did not take inside ourselves grows day by day, we are in the precarious position of deciding what is good and what is not so good but against our better judgment we return to repeatedly. While many Catholics spend their adult lives recovering and rejecting sacraments past, Rea chooses to revel by building a monument to the things we should never have let inside us but will probably digest again and again.

For more information please contact:

Sara Ebers
Dominic Paul Moore
(312) 772 3021
info@ebersmoore.com

Address:
350 North Ogden Ave, Suite 100
Chicago, IL 60607

Hours:
Friday – Saturday 12 – 6 pm and by appointment

Directions:
EBERSMOORE is located in just west of Chicago’s West Loop gallery district on Ogden Ave. Half block north of Fulton. Street parking is available. Call ahead for handicap accessibility.

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