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October 3 - 7 2018 The Living Gallery NYC - Opening of the Third Eye reception with performance by Natsumi Goldfish October 4, 6 - 10pm

"We accept so many things that come through the media; we get used to them, however vigilant we are. But for any creative art, you have to remain 110% conscious, and in a world that's losing consciousness, that's getting harder." Keith Jarrett

Stephen Romano Gallery is please to announce a four person exhibition of the works of Natsumi Goldfish, Alexis Palmer Karl, Daniel Goncalves and Barry William Hale at the Living Gallery Outpost on the Lower East side in New York City. The exhibition's theme will be further asserted with the inclusion of historical and vernacular images and objects including works by Jacob Bohme, Karl Kohl, Burt Shonberg, Jack Edwards, Darcilio Lima, Wolfgang Grasse, William Mortensen, spirit photography, as well as unknown artists.

The premise of the exhibition is to unite four artists from different corners of the world, America, Japan, Australia and Portugal, who's thread of continuity is to make art that achieves for the artist and consequently for the viewer an enriched state of consciousness, or the opening of the third eye, the locus of occult power and wisdom in the forehead of a deity, especially the god Shiva. Each of these artists, as well as the included peripheral material, aspires to induce, through the medium of visual art, a state of affirmation to the seeker of a cosmic order that perpetuates a higher sense of the spiritual (or meta-physical) connectedness amongst us.

The Living Gallery Outpost is located at 246 East 4th Street New York NY 10009.

Exhibition hours are Wednesday October 3, 4 - 8pm, Thursday October 4, 2 - 10pm, Friday 5 - Sunday 7, 1 - 8 pm or by appointment at 646 709 4725.

For further information and visuals please contact Stephen Romano at romanostephen@gmail.com

"When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness." Joseph Campbell

"I give the name of cosmic sense to the more or less confused affinity that binds us psychologically to the All which envelops us. The existence of this feeling is indubitable, and apparently as old as the beginning of thought... The cosmic sense must have been born as soon as man found himself facing the forest, the sea and the stars." Teilhard de Chardin "The Phenomenon of Man" 1959

Natsumi Goldfish

Natsumi Goldfish is a contemporary Japanese artist based in New York City. Natsumi Goldfish grew up in the fringe of Tokyo, a place of between of all, where nature and urban culture, and many different elements coexisted. The environment inspired and educated her to believe in pluralism, or something close to the idea of being between and both, which is an important part to understand her creation. In 2011 she moved to the United States. In 2013, she received her B. A. in Art from Tyler School of Art. Natsumi Goldfish primary works with oil painting. Her creation is based on her interest in conscious and unconscious human behaviors seen in history as well as in her ordinary life.

"I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life." Jack Kerouac

Alexis Palmer Karl

Alexis Palmer Karl is a multidisciplinary artist, professor at Pratt Institute and School of Visual Arts, and scholar and lecturer on magic and ritualism in art, fashion and fragrance. She has lectured extensively on ritualistic shamanic practices and folkloric magic, and the relevance of ritual within artistic culture at both the Metropolitan Museum and The Morbid Anatomy Museum, where she was the house perfumer and an exhibiting artist.

Karl’s art work is concerned with a reinterpretation of magical objects and the illustration of oracular magic through sculpture, film, gothic dark ambient music, ritual fragrance, and large scale portraits of witches. Her upcoming solo exhibition at Pratt Institute, “The Ecstasy of Forbidden Daylight”, is based on studies of 18th century accounts of witchcraft trials from her research in the UK, and a series of her lectures at The Morbid Anatomy museum, and serves to bring the archetype of the Witch into the modern era.

"The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness." Lao Tzu

Daniel Gonçalves

Daniel Gonçalves is a self-taught draughtsman and painter from Porto (b.1977) with a deep genuine creative streak. This gift, combined with a hyperactive personality, led him from an early age to understand the world and to relate to it through his artistic expression, having participated in the last decade in multiple collective exhibitions held in Porto.

In the course of his experimentations searching for a personal style, regardless of the multiplicity of techniques, he has always revealed a particular attention for the games of shapes and colors. Lately presents an obsessive black-and-white, materialized in geometric abstract drawings, though spotted by organic elements: a repetitive minimal aesthetic, more circular than linear.

"As we grow in our consciousness, there will be more compassion and more love, and then the barriers between people, between religions, between nations will begin to fall. Yes, we have to beat down the separateness." Ram Dass

Barry William Hale

Barry William Hale is a Sydney based artist whose work over the past 20 years has included painting, drawing, installation, video, sound and performance. A feature of the Adelaide Biennale and Sydney Biennale, he is considered one of the key exponents of outsider and esoteric art in the region, specifically creating work which responds to concepts of western spirituality, philosophy and ritual. His writing and artwork have been published internationally across a range of academic and cultural publications, and his artwork was a central component of the national touring exhibition: Windows to the Sacred.

“My work is a synthesis of Art and Magick, and the residue of my esoteric endeavors. It is essential for me to forge a magical link to the metaphysical subject matter. There is great power in the things people are afraid of. The Devil is the name some new regime gives to the God[s] of those whom they oppress. These repressed forces become the locus of forbidden power imprisoned by the walls of taboo. For me, these Crowned Anarchies become the agencies of liberation. My work is Gnostic in the sense that it gives primacy to direct experience with the divine. In the spirit of the Rebellious Promethean spark of the Luciferian fire." - Barry William Hale

“Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n” Paradise Lost — John Milton

Other complimentary works in the exhibition include:

for further informtion and visuals, please contact Stephen Romano at romanostephen@gmail.com

Stephen Romano Biography.

Stephen Romano has been in the Gallery world since 1989 when he began working for the late legendary Canadian art dealer Walter Moos in Toronto. Shortly afterwards, Stephen Romano was hired as assistant director of the 49th Parallel Gallery in New York City, then followed a series of engagements with prominent galleries such as Marlyn Pearl Gallery, Miriam Shiell Gallery, The Ricco Maresco Gallery in New York, where Stephen served as Gallery Manager for 8 years. For the next ten years from 2004 through 2014, Stephen dealt privately and played a pivotal role in building some of the most significant collections of Self Taught and Outsider Art, particularly sourcing masterworks by Henry Darger, Charles Dellschau, Adolph Wolfli, Martin Ramirez and many others.

In 2013, Stephen Romano produced the first ever book on Charles Dellschau which included the final published essay by Thomas McEvilley. The book was awarded vast critical acclaim as being of the highest standard, and established Dellschau as an outsider artist in the same parthenon as Henry Darger, Adolph Wolfli and Martin Ramirez.

In July 2015 Stephen Romano curated "Opus Hypnagogia" at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, which received a 12 paragraph review in the New York Times.

In 2014, Stephen Romano opened an eponymous gallery in Dumbo Brooklyn where important exhibitions were mounted of the art of William Mortensen, Colin Christian, Darcilio Lima, as well as extravagantly themed group exhibitions. The Gallery moved to Bushwick in 2015 and continued presenting museum quality exhibitions, including the highly acclaimed "Magica Sexualis" and "Saint Bowie". Stephen Romano Gallery published a series of catalogs complimentary to it's exhibition program on artists such as William Mortensen, Darcilio Lima, Colin Christian, Rithika Merchant, Jel Ena, and included essays by such luminaries as David Ebony, Robert Morgan, Pamela Grossman, Alison Meyer, Samuel Gliner of Between Mirrors and Decadence Darling.

Since the temporary closure of the gallery in Brooklyn, Stephen Romano Gallery has collaborated with major cultural institutions such as the MET Breuer and Reina Sophia Museum Madrid in presenting the works of Brazilian artist Darcilio Lima, as well as participated in art fairs including SCOPE and The Outsider Art Fair. Stephen Romano Gallery presented a one person exhibition of William Mortensen's art curated by Barry William Hale at the Dark MOFO festival in 2018, as well as assisted in producing a major presentation of the art of Charles Dellschau at the American Folk Art Museum. Most recently the art of Charles Dellschau was presented by Larry Gagosian at the Gagosian Gallery's booth at the Seattle Art Fair in a group exhibition entitled "Out of This World" courtesy of Stephen Romano Gallery. Stephen Romano continues to collaborate with The Morbid Anatomy Museum with it's exhibition program at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Stephen Romano is presently preparing a major retrospective of the art of William Mortensen for a California cultural institution and is in the formative stages of co-producing a new book of primarily previously unseen works by the artist which is planned for release in September 2019.