William Mortensen Titles unknown, photographs c. 1926

The exhibition, organized by a champion of the esoteric, curator, collector and private art dealer Stephen Romano of Brooklyn NY, -- centers on the works of American photographic artist William Mortensen (1897 - 1965) who worked in Hollywood in the 1920's and made some of the most evocative esoteric and occult images in history. The exhibition also features four contemporary artists who perpetuate Mortensen's legacy by using aspects of his aesthetic formulas, as well as his love of brazenly self empowering occult and sexualized imagery.

All of the works by the contemporary artists in this exhibition were made specifically for this show, and have never been exhibited before..

Stephen Romano states: "As a collector, I have custodianship of one of the largest and most in depth collection of William Mortensen's art. This exhibition stands in part and in contrast, to a current museum exhibition of William Mortensen's works, whose curatorial efforts have attempted to mediocritize Mortensen's legacy, and downplay the importance of his occult imagery. To the contrary, it is my firm and unwavering belief that Mortensen was among the great visionaries of the past century, and his influence continues to reverberate among yet another generation of artists..

"A Tantric Sorcerer" 1932	"The Devil's Violinist" 1932	"The Heretic" 1932

"The Old Hag" 1928	"Prepapration for the Sabbath" 1928	"The Hag with the Incubus" (detail) 1928

Wyrd War, whose exceptional program is aligned with generosity of spirit and helping to bring awareness to art that challenges mediocrity and complacency, brings a broad enrichment of awareness, and is a well suited collaborator for such a tribute to William Mortensen"

Dennis Dread, Owner of Wyrd War Gallery says: "It is no surprise then that from the golden dawn of Hollywood, that wicked cauldron of contemporary Western imagination, emerged the preeminent master conjurer William Mortensen (1897-1965) wielding only a camera as his magician’s wand. Thebewildering shadow cast by America’s controversial and eventually exiled “anti-Christ” of the aperturehas proven to be a profound and enchanting force that has influenced generations of image makerssince his death nearly sixty years ago. "WITCH’S EYE: THE CAMERA LENS AS OCCULT DEVICE is a bold celebration of WILLIAM MORTENSEN’S ART AND LEGACY. All of the artists featured in this exhibition, which has been beautifully curated by Stephen Romano, honor Mortensen’s memory, archetypes, obsessions, techniques and craftsmanship. This season of the witch, Wyrd War Gallery proudly welcomes all to come…come…Come to the Sabbat!"

Romano continues: "It is the most noble aspiration on behalf of the artist to go against the hegemony, and to take on the role of oracle, witch and shaman, to be a healing force in the culture, and through their works, give the viewers
affirmations of a greater quality of life experience.

Mortensen, in his time, created works that opened the senses to a higher realm of perception through his masterful techniques, many of which he created himself, and through his visionary outlook to change the world through his
art.

It is the very rare artist who can forge the two attributes together, and through the execution of the work, create a sublime and enlightening experience. Mortensen's art--in particular his use of occult imagery--has inspired many by his usage of the visceral and controversial subject matters of witchcraft and the occult.

The persecution of practitioners of witchcraft is aligned with the persecution and suppression of women's freedoms. Mortensen, contrary to how history has relegated him to being a "kitsch" photographer, was a strong advocate for female self-empowerment and sexual freedom.

This was in a time where such notions were highly challenged by an emerging evangelical right in the 1920's. They controlled the film industry's narratives shortly after Mortensen's time in Hollywood with "The Motion Picture Production Code (Hay's Code)"; instituted officially in 1934. This code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures, purportedly in the interest of decency, written by a Presbyterian elder, a postmaster general, and the head of the Republican National Committee.

That Mortensen's art flourished in this time, while receiving very little critical or peer recognition, is nothing short of a miracle, and evidence of the artist's tenacious convictions and dedication to his art, which is overtly inherent in the integrity of the images included in this exhibition."

The artists in the exhibition include:

"Everything exists through its opposite. For pictures of calm and tranquil beauty to have any meaning, even for “sweet” pictures to have any meaning, it is necessary that the grotesque and the distorted exist. Perfection of form is significant only because the malforms exist also. Those who turn away from the grotesque are losing the richness and completeness of artistic experience..

A very fruitful field for grotesque art is afforded by the manifestations of witchcraft and demonology. Fear, secrecy, and converse with evil powers, were characteristic elements of this mysterious cult, which is as old as man. These elements are of the very substance of the grotesque. The early wood engravers did much with themes derived from witchcraft. Brueghel has worked with this material; so also has Goya; but little has been done with it by photographers. Over-consciousness of the literal limitations of their medium has perhaps held some back from entering this unrealistic and imaginative field. But this very quality of unrealism should be a challenge to a photographer who wishes to pass beyond the conventionally accepted realism of the camera."

William Mortensen "Fear" 1928 Manipulated photograph

This work was hung in The Black House in San Francisco,

home of Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan.

William Mortensen was a photographic artist born 1897, who worked in Hollywood in the golden age of silent film from 1921 to 1929.

He came to Hollywood from Utah along with the actress Fay Wray, and worked with many celebrated directors such as Rex Ingram, Todd Browning and Cecil B. DeMille. Mortensen began his career in Hollywood by making masks and costumes, but soon was given the opportunity by DeMille to be a still photographer for the film "King of Kings in 1926. Having produced astonishing results, he was given a floor at the Western Costume Company and began developing his own artistic oeuvre, using models, props and settings available to him.

In 1929, while he was one of the hottest and most widely admired photographers in thecountry, Mortensen was the victim of a vicious campaign of scandal initiated by Fay Wray's mother, a woman of Mormon faith. She implied he had been inappropriate with her daughter, because Mortensen had in his possession some partially nude
photographs of the young Fay Wray. One photo was published in Motion Picture magazine, a claim Fay Wray dismisses in her autobiography "On The Other Hand" where she clearly states "He never laid a hand on me".. Regardless, people believe what they want to believe, and Mortensen, who to this day has suffered egregious
institutional neglect, has been the ostracized from the broader community of photography proper, with the exception of a handful of well-regarded critics and curators.

After this, Mortensen moved his artistic practice toto Laguna Beach, California and set up a school and studio where over the course of a decade over 3500 students from all over the world attended. Mortensen died from Leukemia in 1965, by then all but relegated to the dustbin of history. It was only later at the turn of the last century when interest began to re-emerge in his art, and mostly his occult themed photographs. In 2014 Feral House Published "American Grotesque - The Life and Art of William Mortensen", a hard cover book which illustrated some of Mortensen's most well know photographs, as well as never before published works entitled " Pictorial Compendium of Witchcraft and Magic". This book increased William Mortensen's visibility by orders of magnitude. Accompanying the book was the first large scale exhibition of Mortensen's works in over 20 years at the Stephen Romano Gallery in Brooklyn. Major exhibitions have been curated by Stephen Romano since then at The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft in Cleveland, The Dark Mofo Festival in Tasmania, The esoteric book and antique fair in New York, as well as works being included in exhibitions at Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, The Gallery of Everything, London, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others.

"William Mortensen has inspired me to create a world of darkness and occultism in my photographs. Every time I see the works of William Mortensen I am exhaled by his subjects, the handling of light and the beauty that each image conveys. It's incredible"

Lorena Torres Martell "Vampyr" 2022 digitally manipulated photograph

Lorena Torres Martell is an artist who resides in San Luis Potosí, México.

Lorena was recently the subject of a feature in rue morgue magazine titled "STEP INTO THE FANTASTICAL UNDERWORLD OF LORENA TORRES MARTELL"

She has participated in various exhibitions of painting, engraving and photography. She collaborated with photo work in the storybook "SINIESTRO" by Violeta García, at the Fóbica festival in Guadalajara and at the Centro Cultural de México Contemporáneo in Mexico City.

In 2018 she held his first individual photography exhibition "EXCISION" at the La casa de las Bóvedas Cultural Center

She recently won first place in the festival's horror photography contest: Terrorificamente Cortos, in Palencia, Spain with his photography "Tres Brujas". She was also awarded the instagram prize of the same contest.

from the artist:

"My main inspiration is horror movies, Gothic culture and the aesthetics of the grotesque, I am passionate about creating these types of images, I can spend hours in post production, I really enjoy creating characters with deformed features that reflect despair and suffering, witches, monsters and supernatural beings. The terrifying, the strange, the fear and death."

"..Lorena Torres-Martell’s work reclaims the image of the witch that has been coded by esoteric culture. (Martell) exhibits a strong command of (her) craft of utilizing darkroom and digital technique to transmute photons into tapestries of the divine and the damned.. The shift from “from vixen to hag” takes place in the work of (..) Lorena Torres Martell, who, without any doubt, (..) evokes the affect of supernatural terror by which folklore estranged the witch from the safety of the commons. While the understated power of her co-exhibitors challenge by holding a mirror up to the viewer, Martell’s subjects withdraw from the shadows into full light to perform an aesthetically ruthless amplitude of horror. We are left convinced of how even the demonized wield a form of power in their marginalization, for little else could be more derisive of the status quo than the image of a sky-clad coven twisting their mutilated visages in its face."

- Alfred Rosenbluth "Transmutations: Witches, Healers, and Oracles" at Buckland’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magick" WHITEHOT Contemporary March 2021 full article here

"I find Mortensen’s ability to create an atmosphere that leads his viewers to easily suspend their disbelief inspiring. His ingenuity toward traditional photography techniques stir up an inventiveness in my own work by pushing the boundaries of what traditional art making methods can be."

Matthew Dutton "Apparition" 2022, AI collaborative Photograph

"William Mortensen is hands down my favorite photographer, a true creative genius."

Edward Clover "The Devil's Face" 2022 edition, photograph

Edward Colver is an essentially self-taught American photographer, best known for his early punk photographs.

Colver not only created a visual document of the birth of the hard-core punk in suburban Southern California from late 1978 to mid-1984, but also he greatly helped in defining the photography style and graphic identity of the American hard-core punk movement.

He was actually in the right place at the right time, and with thethe right attitude. He was not merely a witness in the eye of the storm, he was indeed a living part of that big picture, and in this regard, his early work is an authentic self-portrait of the Southern California hardcore punk scene in its golden years.

His work was featured extensively in the book American Hardcore: A Tribal History (2001), written by Steven Blush, and in its documentary film version, American Hardcore (2006), directed by Paul Rachman.

Most recently, Nico B, Cult Epics founder and friend of Christian Death's Rozz Williams, edited an oversized hardcover book of Ed's photos of Christian Death capturing rare and never-before-seen moments , as well as the story of early Christian Death as told by Edward, surviving band members and others through new, exclusive interviews.

"William Mortensen was truly a pioneer for early occult imagery, violating all tradition and embracing both light and darkness. By placing women in both dominant and submissive roles, Mortensen challenged the viewer to confront both power and submission, life and death.  His work showcased women in power while keeping an underlying message of intrigue, fear, and mysticism."

Brittany Rose Luciani "Mother of Grace, Mother of Sin, Mother of Sorrow I" 2022 photograph.

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Brittany Rose Luciani is a self-taught photographer, using the camera since she was a child. Having grown up with her grandmother who was an artist, she was encouraged at a very young age to express herself creatively. Brittany began her interest in the paranormal and occult at a young age as well. The two interests converged later when she began a professional practice as an artist, all the while supporting herself and her daughter as a house painter while living in Ohio.

The subject matter of Brittany's art and compositional elements are heavily guided by Mortensen's theories of the "Dominant Mass" in his 1937 magnum opus "The Command to Look", his treatise on the psychology of perception. Brittany's art not only demonstrates a deep knowledge of intuitively striking compositional elements, but a will and courage to explore subject matter not quickly embraced by the mainstream culture, yet whose culmination of technique and vision manifest an overt affirmation of the quality of the left-hand path.

Also included in the exhibition will be a selection of vernacular photographs, lobby cards and other ephemera to further compliment and sustain the esoteric and occult sensibilities of the artist exhibited.

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Stills and lobby cards from "La Papesse" 1974 Dir Mario Mercier

For further information and press materials please contact

Stephen Romano at romanostephen@gmail.com

or

Dennis Dread and Tiffany Kenaley

wyrdwar@gmail.com

3505 NE Broadway St. Portland, Oregon 97232 | wyrdwar@gmail.com http://www.wyrdwar.com

available every day by appointment.

Wyrd War is a Portland, Oregon based art gallery, record label and film programming team specializing in the advancement and celebration of strange and wonderful art, film and music. Owned and operated by internationally renowned artist Dennis Dread and his partner Tiffany Kenaley, Wyrd War strikes where least expected to inspire, challenge, and titillate audiences and collectors with a decidedly darker sensibility. Private viewings are available by appointment every day of the year. To schedule a visit please email wyrdwar@gmail.com or follow on Instagram for daily updates and public hours. 3505 NE Broadway Street Portland, Oregon 97232 “To the portrayal of bizarre beauty in the arts, to the delineation of the stranger harmonies and the rarer fragrances, do we dedicate Wyrd War…  Ever shall we attempt the vivid expression of such art, wherever or however we may find it – ever shall we consecrate our very weird war to the depiction of beauty anomalous, fantastical!”