ZEN PSYCHOSIS
by Shana Nys Dambrot
Photographs by Osceola Refetoff
ARTIST TALK, BOOK SIGNING & EXHIBITION
Saturday, February 29 (Leap Year!)
6-10pm; artist talk at 7pm
Chungking Studio
975 Chung King Road
Chinatown 90012
Facebook Event Page: facebook.com/events/122978135694275
Zen Psychosis Instagram Account: instagram.com/zenpsychosis
Griffith Moon Publishing: griffithmoon.com/zen
ZEN PSYCHOSIS is a work of oneiric fiction -- a personal memoir culled not from diaries, but dreams. A critic of art and an amateur student of Jungian psychoanalysis, Dambrot is often compelled to decode intuitive, inscrutable symbols and assemble meaning from the clues the dream or the artist leaves behind. In this novel, she applies the technique to her own inner self.
The accompaniment of fantastical pinhole photographs by Osceola Refetoff augments and expands on this dynamic, bringing a beguiling dreamlike quality to what are in fact people and places in the real world outside. As an artist and student of cinema, Refetoff has long been fascinated with the conventional visual language of what dreams are supposed to look like.
Praise for ZEN PSYCHOSIS:
“The new novella by Shana Nys Dambrot, Zen Psychosis is so serpentine sandy dreamy hyper-romantic Anais Nin naked Joan Didion kissing Henry Miller… not to mention the lush pinhole camera photographs by Osceola Refetoff…” -- Poet, Milo Martin
“The Los Angeles-based art critic, curator, and now author has taken scenes from her unconscious and transposed them into something tangible and inventive.” -- Bree Castillo in FLAUNT Magazine.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. She is the Arts Editor for the L.A. Weekly, and a contributor to Art & Cake, Whitehot, Flaunt, Artillery, and other publications. She studied Art History at Vassar College, writes essays for books and exhibition catalogs, curates and juries exhibitions, and speaks at galleries, schools, and cultural institutions nationally. Dambrot is a member of ArtTable and an award-winning member of the Los Angeles Press Club. sndx.net.
Osceola Refetoff is a photographer interested in documenting humanity’s impact on the world, both the intersection of nature and industry, and the narratives of the people living at those crossroads. His parallel careers as an editorial and fine art photographer are characterized by an evocative, cinematic understanding of how scale, point of view, architecture, and motion can express the essence of a given place. Osceola graduated from NYU Film School and is the recipient of the 2018 Los Angeles Press Club National Photojournalist of the Year. ospix.com.
Griffith Moon Publishing is a publishing house based in Santa Monica, California, celebrating the works of contemporary artists in the form of exhibition retrospectives, artist/writer collaborations, and innovative storytelling. Find them on Facebook & Twitter.
IMAGE ASSETS (cover, head shots, interior images) For Web: dropbox.com
CONTACT for inquiries:
Shana Nys Dambrot: [email protected]
Osceola Refetoff: [email protected]
Top photos: Shana Nys Dambrot – The Getty Villa – Pacific Palisades, California – 2018
Osceola Refetoff (self portrait) – Chung King Road – Los Angeles, California – 2019
Multispectral Pinhole Exposures
Book Cover: Woman in Doorway – Pinhole Exposure – Union Station – Los Angeles, California – 2010