Once upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is the first of three chapters telling the story of Dorothy Circus, one of the most famous contemporary art's galleries in Rome. Alexandra Mazzanti, owner and curator, stood out immediately for her artistic foresight and her unconditional love for the Low Brow & Pop Surrealism movements. She deeply believes in her project and its potentialities, up to the point of making Dorothy Circus a landmark of its kind - especially in the European market, where the Gallery has become the first reference address for Pop Surrealism. Also the artists she hosts are first class: Ray Caesar, Mark Ryden, Tara McPherson, Ron English, Nicoletta Ceccoli and Camille Rose Garcia are only some of the names involved in her three-year project. Once Upon a Time is a yearbook of the gallery, where you can find all the events and artists who populated the area in 2011, with critical essays, biographies and many pictures. For fans of the genre it represents a book that cannot be waived, for the curious who is approaching this world for the first time, it's simply a clear and useful guide to an artistic genre increasingly understood and appreciated in official circles - and beyond. With its magical as well as disturbing atmosphere, one foot in a dream and the other in a nightmare, the Pop Surrealism movement took its first steps in Los Angeles in the late Seventies, where it met with Surrealist movement, and at their happy marriage they invited Cinema, Comics, Music and many other realities in perpetual becoming. Up to the present days,when the movement is characterized by different kind of artists and a thousand fascinating contamination. Once Upon a Time takes you in a world that you cannot resist, where reality and fiction merge in a perception straddling Carroll's and Lovecraft's imaginary.