The success of Travis Louie's work rests on his uncanny ability to juggle two completely contradictory tendencies at once. On the one hand, the aesthetic of his work is a brilliant pastiche; with photorealistic precision, he carefully crafts works that nail the particular qualities of Victorian photographs that makes them look incredibly "real." On the other, he's creating a dream world of monsters that never existed in reality. And beyond the simple derangement of the creatures he portrays with life-like faithfulness, he adds yet another layer of complexity by crafting them with these inscrutable facial expressions. It's verisimilitude meets fantasy meets something deeper, and the magic of how all those layers collapse is what gives his work its oddly compelling quality and charm. more ›