Surrealist Art Gallery

Avant-garde and Surrealist Art Gallery of New Eiffel

Artwork exhibited at the opening event
Type	Pop-up art gallery
Traded as	Surrealist Art Gallery
Industry	New Eiffelic art
Founded	15 January 2020
Founder	Zabëlle Skye
Area served	Principality of New Eiffel

The Surrealist Art Gallery—officially the Avant-garde and Surrealist Art Gallery of New Eiffel—was an annual pop-up art gallery exhibiting art by New Eiffelic artists in the Principality of New Eiffel. Its first and only event held during New Eiffel's existence occurred on 15 January 2020 in a room assigned with the Mail Code 001-AC in the Main Building in New Leeds—the largest city of New Eiffel. The gallery largely exhibited installation art, as well as drawings, paintings and video art. Conceived by Zabëlle Skye as a replacement to the inactive Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum, the Surrealist Art Gallery contained thirteen artworks in total and was a critical success, becoming a cultural icon in the micronation. On 19 July 2020, the art gallery was designated as a Grade 1-listed structure by the New Eiffel Registry Ministry for its "cultural or artistic importance." Following the dissolution of New Eiffel on 1 November, the art gallery remains extant as a separate entity under a new name; it is now located in the United Kingdom.

History

Soothing Ring of Fire playing at the Surrealist Art Gallery

Art in New Eiffel was a significant aspect of the principality's culture. The Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum was established in January 2018 in the Republic of New Finland—a predecessor state to New Eiffel. It contained over 55 different paintings, drawings, installations, watercolours and photographs by New Eiffelic artists, with Maria van Bosch being the most exhibited artist. However, it was closed indefinitely around December 2018, leaving New Eiffel without an art gallery. Nevertheless, both the creation and importance of art in the micronation remained quite prevalent.

In early January 2020, Zabëlle Skye became interested in creating a temporary art exhibit that could fill the former role of the Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum. He immediately thought of exhibiting his art film Soothing Ring of Fire—which consists of 10 hours and 34 minutes of slow motion footage of an unchanging view of an electronic heater fan—that he had created a few days prior on 28 December 2019, and later asked other artists to submit their artwork for exhibition. Skye sought to exhibit several different mediums of art. Janus Smith created an untitled artwork retroactively titled The Thing for the exhibition.

The first event took place on 15 January 2020, in a room assigned with the Mail Code 001-AC in the Main Building in New Leeds—the largest city in New Eiffel. It contained thirteen artworks—seven installations, four drawings, one painting and one video art. All five residents attended the event, which was a huge success, garnering widespread acclaim. The art gallery immediately became a cultural icon in the micronation. That same day, the Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum was formally closed in favour of the Surrealist Art Gallery. On 19 July, the art gallery was designated as a Grade 1-listed structure by the New Eiffel Registry Ministry for its "cultural or artistic importance." Following the dissolution of New Eiffel on 1 November, the art gallery remains extant as a separate entity under a new name; it is now located in the United Kingdom.

Artwork

The Furby

The Surrealist Art Gallery contained thirteen artworks—seven installations, four drawings, one painting and one instance of video art. The exhibition in the Main Building consisted of two shelves, a painting gallery, one lone installation piece and a screening of Soothing Ring of Fire (2019). The first shelf was a black table consisting of four equally-sized squares displaying small installations—Difference; Candy Avec Une; The Jinxx Wooden Stand; and The Disc. Difference consists of three cardboard tubes with text written in marker in English on each: "Han Chinese," "White" and "Mixed." Candy Avec Une is a regurgitated hard candy on a saucer decorated with a flower pattern. The Jinxx Wooden Stand is a product created by luxury fashion company Jinxx. The Disc is a discarded transparent floppy disk.

The second shelf was a white square shelf with two installations and two drawings—Flames; The Furby; P*blue and You and Me. Flames is a piece of cardboard with blue smudges. The Furby is a broken portion of a wooden bed frame with marker drawings and stickers on it. Both P*blue and You and Me are marker drawings on small pieces of paper; P*blue has black and dark blue smudges, and You and Me has the English text "The Art is You and Me" written on it in orange. The two drawings and one painting hung on a wall were Eye.—a black and white sketch of an eye—an untitled work retroactively titled The Thing—an abstract painting of shades of blue—and Bigger Piccturrr-a drawingwor work made up of several squiggly lines.

The lone art installation titled Homme À'action is an action figure dressed as fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh. Soothing Ring of Fire, an experimental art film, consists of 10 hours and 34 minutes of slow motion footage of an unchanging view of an electronic heater fan. It was screened on its own in a loop.

See also

• Win-a-lot Casino—another pop-up event in New Eiffel