/ Pool Gallery is pleased to present “THE DARKSIDE PORTRAITS???, new paintings by New York City artist James Gortner. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 27th at 20:00 and will run through November 25th, 2007. „THE DARKSIDE PORTRAITS??? portray an allegorical look into the lives of the inhabitants of a Brooklyn crack house, who’s Madam is the neighborhood „Lyalorisha???, or Voodoo Priestess. It is in this dilapidated building, located next to an old cemetery in a region of Brooklyn called „Darkside???, where Gortner calls his studio, and spends countless hours amongst his subjects and the intimate details of their lives. The paintings are woven together like a fairy-tale of addiction, racism, deadly viruses, climate change, war and magic, Gortner employs a deeply humanistic approach in the use of symbolism to transcend his forlorn subjects into saints and martyrs. Comprised of 13 paintings, „THE DARKSIDE PORTRAITS??? are each assembled out of many smaller found paintings, which are then patch-worked together, and painted over, leaving the original canvases partially exposed. Gortner`s‚ use of abandoned paintings to paint abandoned people is used much like the „Lyalorisha‚s??? alchemy of transformation, turning human frailty into survival and divination. Exhibition: 28.09 – 25.11.2007 Private View: 27. September 2007 16.00 – 20.00 Uhr Opening Reception 27. September 2007 20.00 – 24.00 Uhr