January 3-30, Baton Rouge Gallery

Selecting the artworks that will be featured in the Baton Rouge Gallery’s annual “Surreal Salon” exhibition is no easy task. After all, more than 300 pieces created by artists around the world were submitted for consideration for this year’s show. Whittling down that array of pop-surrealist pieces was the job of special guest juror Dan Quintana, a Los Angeles-based artist whose work has ranged from street murals to custom cars to ethereal oil paintings.

The result of Quintana’s local efforts is a carefully curated exhibition featuring 60 paintings, sculptures, textiles, blown-glass pieces, woodcut prints and more.

“The works run the gamut from humorous to scary, from the technically skilled to conceptually rich,” says Baton Rouge Gallery director Jason Andreasen. “On the whole, the exhibition gives a look at how diverse and exciting the pop-surrealist movement within contemporary art is. In some ways, it is a movement still being defined, and this exhibition hopes to show just how difficult it is to pin it down.”

This 12th edition of “Surreal Salon” will also feature works created by Quintana himself, and the guest juror will present an art talk at the LSU School of Art at 5 p.m. on January 27. Another highlight of the show is the popular Surreal Salon Soiree, set for January 25, at which hundreds of costumed guests will channel their own pop-surrealist visions during an evening with live music and interactive experiences.

“The first time BRG held ‘Surreal Salon,’ it was a one-night-only exhibition and was only open to local artists,” Andreasen says. “There was no way to know that Baton Rouge would have embraced the show the way it has over all these years, and we always want to hug them right back with a great show and a jaw-dropping soiree.”

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