A Trip ‘Through the Looking Glass’ With Photographer Greg Lotus at The White Room Gallery

“Though the Looking Glass,” an exhibition featuring work by Italian Vogue photographer Greg Lotus, opens at The White Room Gallery with the reception on Saturday, June 22, from 5 to 7 PM. The show is on view at the gallery from June 18 through July 14.

“When Lewis Carroll sent Alice through the looking glass, she entered a fantastical world replete with an engaging ensemble of characters and everything including logic, in reverse,” write the shows curators, gallery owners Andrea McCafferty and Kat O’Neill. “In ‘Through the Looking Glass, the viewer is also transported and there is also an engaging ensemble of characters, but nothing is in reverse. Unless, of course, you back up to get a closer look.”

Fashion photographer Greg Lotus creates a world where it is perfectly normal for a sophisticate to be across from a large, perfectly coiffed poodle enjoying a champagne lunch or to witness a giraffe striking a pose or to come upon a woman disguised as a peacock lounging on a crimson divan.

Drawing inspiration from classical paintings and a wide array of sources and life experiences, Lotus reinterprets in his own evocative way the use of light and shadow, playing with angles and composition to enhance the graphic quality of his images. Lotus is a master of allure. All his narratives draw the viewer in.

In The Black Room of the gallery, another world presents itself only now with words telling a story alongside the characters as mixed media artist John Joseph Hanright presents a heart asking who is the victor and vivid pink lips questioning what is fabulous and Mickey Mouse as a possible bruiser.

Hanright is a painter and assemblage artist who brings together a combination of vintage pieces from the 1940s to early 1960s alongside contemporary imagery to form paintings that reflect on history while commenting on current times.

“Though Hanright’s work mixes paint and collage while Lotus is all seen through the lens the two artists come together beautifully in this exhibit with vibrant and engaging creations and unlike Alice, you don’t have to climb through a mirror to see them,” the curators said.

The White Room Gallery is at 3 Railroad Avenue in East Hampton. Visit thewhiteroom.gallery for details.