These artists weave references from American folk art, popular culture and art history to create images which challenge notions of beauty. Using non-traditional materials they defy conventional approaches to painting and sculpture.

"I paint figures which personify different levels of consciousness in a weird utopian world aware of the presence of monstrosity." Gordon Fremaux

In Gordon Fremaux's painting Supertramp, a fakir holding birds' nests sits cross-legged in midtown Manhattan, sworn not to lower his hands until birds nest in them. He is treated as just another bizarre spectacle on the streets of New York by those passing by.

Yael Kanarek's Untitled paintings (from the Love Letters From the World of Awe Series) use acrylic, candy sprinkles and papier-mache to question the power of art as a signifier of the sublime. The texts from this series are letters from an alienated traveler searching through an artificial landscape for the experience of awe.

Kanarek's cartoon bombs, paper snow flakes, demonic Dr. Seuss characters, and birds flying in a smiley face formation pull every cheap trick in the sublime, romantic, painted, landscape book, all to no avail. Such desperation emphasizes the limitations of art, contrasted with the sincere desire to transcend those limitations.

Yael Kanarek, The Point of No Return,1996, mixed media

Julia Peppito's Untitled installation, constructed of ashtrays, fishing bait, electrical tape, glitter, and fabric, appears as both a child's dream fort and a set from a David Cronenberg film.

Glittering yet grotesque sexual members protrude and recede in a stuffed star which doubles as an infant toy; squishy bubbles are both squeeze toys and boils; and only after closer examination does the viewer recognize that receding eyes are everywhere.

Matthew Freedman, Untitled,1996, clay, acrylic

"The figures in my installations are crude and rough, almost not there, though present in great numbers. The significance of each individual piece is diminished in a crowd, but their collective presence is increased." Matthew Freedman

Matthew Freedman's air-dried clay figures are hastily hand-molded and painted in a way which speaks of urgency and frailty. These wounded and slovenly figures are humorous on an individual basis, but collectively their frailties become grotesque and menacing.

In Randy Wray's paintings the artist applies craft-making techniques such as paint-by-numbers and macrame to create complex abstractions. Wray makes no distinctions between "appropriate" and 'inappropriate" materials.

Free to utilize images and objects reflective of his personal experiences and tastes, his paintings confound categorization. They are both abstract and representational, decorative and grotesque.

Randy Wray, Mill,1996, mixed media