Internationally Recognized Photo Illustrator Sets Up Fantasy World at Stamford, CT Gallery

March 17, 2011 - PRLog -- STAMFORD, CT –    Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery is proud to announce the opening of photo illustrator Damla Tokcan Faro's first solo exhibition in America.  Faro will have a one-woman show opening on March 25th from 6 to 9 P.M, and on view through April 30th.  

Faro's work combines photography and illustration as a method to explore the comic, turbulent, and cathartic limitus between childhood and adulthood.  In every fantastical image, there is something that roots it in the “real world.”  Fairies perch on open magazines and furniture, confusing and colluding these fantasy realms with a parallel reality.  Through distortion, perspective, and illustration, Faro enhances her images to tease out the story of each shot, making them dynamic and vivacious visions of fairytale life. “The combination of 2- and 3-dimensions, past and present, and conscious and subconscious helps me to interpret the similarities and differences between what is real and what is imaginary,” Faro states.  “Once I decide where to take my character - I will use nature, found objects, knick-knacks from rubbish bins, and my collection of miniature heroes and heroines to build the scene of my twisted tale.”

According to Fernando Luis Alvarez, one of Faro's contemporaries, “Damla’s work perpetuates a sardonic, fanciful story of how our eye manages to amaze and fool us. The imaginative photo illustrations playfully invite one to delve into the work, and take part in this vivid journey that easily relates to a Where’s Waldo-like experience.”

On display at the Gallery is Faro's Gatecrashers series, which features fairy characters maneuvering about the open pages of a magazine.  Though in any other context they may appear fanciful and carefree, Faro manages to make their immobile smiling faces appear awkward, dazed, and overwhelmed.  It is as though their encounter with their new Eden has become more abrasive than embracive.  It is through Faro's impish lens that the narrative unfolds.  As art critic Michael Weinstein of NewCity Chicago said of the Gatecrashers series, “Deploying figurines of female fairies in stage sets that she crafts from found objects and with her own hands, Tokcan Faro creates a relentlessly artificial world--in all respects--replete with lush vegetation. Yet this is no pastoral idyll; the characters in her still dramas are uncomfortable in their paradise, expressing emotions of shock, shame, bewilderment and bemusement through their body language and expressions.  [Faro]'s color shots of her vision of fairyland stand out for their imaginative brilliance.”

On Friday, March 25th from 6 to 9 PM, Faro's first solo exhibition at Alvarez's Gallery will be an exposition of the power of imagination.  The gallery is excited to announce that the artist will be traveling from her home in London to attend the event. Collectors can RSVP for private viewing on March 24th.  Questions about the opening can be directed to Rebecca Hansen at 888.861.6791, or via email at rhansen@flalvarezgallery.com.

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The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery opened in Stamford, CT in December 2009. Since then, Alvarez has curated over a dozen profitable shows from a stable of international contemporary artists, and has created numerous innovative programs for the community.