FREAKS & FAERIES
A celebration of work by Penelope O’Gara and Michelle Dash. Filled with madness and imagination. Paintings, sculptures and textile works depicting magical beings & unusual oddities from otherworldly realms, dreams and stories.
A Celebration of the Strange, Beautiful and Imaginative: Michelle Dash and Penelope O’Gara Exhibition.
This immersive exhibition transported visitors into a world where the surreal meets the soulful, and the whimsical dances with the thought-provoking. Bringing together Michelle Dash’s distinctive paintings and sculptures with Penelope O’Gara’s enchanting dolls and illustrative artworks, the show invited audiences to explore the creative minds of two artists who see the world through a wildly imaginative lens.
Michelle Dash is a painter and sculptor known for her bold, evocative works. Her collection delves deep into the realms of the strange and wonderful. Her art challenges perceptions, often balancing delicate beauty with an undercurrent of oddity with each piece inviting contemplation. Sometimes unsettling but always intriguing, Michelle’s work draws the viewer into a universe where nothing is quite as it seems.
Penelope O’Gara is a renowned doll maker with a lifetimes experience in theatre and costume making. Fashioned from recycled and reclaimed materials, Penelope’s dolls are more than mere objects, they are characters, each with their own personality, quirks, and histories. Alongside her three-dimensional work, she also exhibited a selection of etchings. Her illustrative pieces offer an intimate glimpse into the stories behind the dolls.
Penelope and Michelle at the Open View
Michelle Dash
Michelle works from her home studio in Old Sodbury, South Gloucestershire. She makes two and three dimensional figurative work, in a variety of media including ceramics and found objects, with a strong narrative element, often evoking mystery, the uncanny and dark humour.
She is influenced by the aesthetic of medieval religious art and the visual and dramatic potential of myths and fairy tales with their magical beings, hybrid creatures and themes of transformation. She is also drawn to the logic of dreams, and the way certain ordinary human-made objects and spaces can be imbued with atmosphere and mystery… perhaps haunted!
Penelope O’Gara
Pen studied theatre and costume design at Exeter University and Southern Methodist University in Dallas before putting together an impressive CV of professional costume work, including with puppets. Dolls as medium spoke to Penelope not only because of her career experience, but more deeply because of the symbolic resonance of their historical use as totems. Her work explores ritual objects, archetypes and symbolism. At the heart of what she creates is a narrative, and Penelope’s calling is to go deeper. She explains, “whether working in two dimensions or three, story-telling is at the heart of my work. Each character has a unique tale to share – I am currently exploring ways to stitch in symbolic elements to further deepen the narrative.”
The dolls are usually based on characters from Penelope’s journals. They are sustainable art—she uses recycled cotton cloth, silk scraps, antique lace and old velvets. She dips them in dye and adds particular details using pastels and graphite. Penelope says that her method of allowing the fabrics to show through paint reminds her of old film grain.
Penelope’s work is inspired by the myths and legends of Avalon. She explains, “Since moving to the Somerset Levels, I have been increasingly drawn to the spirit of the place. Burrowing into the treasure trove of English folklore and local fauna, I find myself creating liminal creatures that cross the divide between animal and human, mythic and mortal.” Penelope has created hand-stitched dolls of totem animals like rabbits, which symbolise fertility and immortality and are common in Avalonian iconography.
