As if the imminent shopping season weren’t already scary enough, a new exhibition at the Stranger Factory in Albuquerque is spreading a little holiday cheer with a dash of nightmares. The gallery’s annual “Winter Salon” exhibition, now in its fifth installment, has gathered the Circus Posterus collective around the Christmas tree to present a selection of smaller paintings and drawings, and several hand-painted figures that take us back to the Island of Misfit Toys. The exhibit has plenty toy-sized offerings by artists like Max Lehman, Keely Reichman, Chris Ryniak, Carisa Swenson, HF Vol. 32 cover artist Travis Louie, while Brandt Peters and Kathie Olivas have collaborated on several scary-cute pieces, including Peters’ grimacing Pumpkin Greeter in a red holiday scarf, and Olivas four-legged Rosie in reindeer horns. Other artists like Candice Tripp take inspiration from well known holiday characters like Santa Claus, or at least sneaky guys who carry sacks, in her painting “It was carrying something when it went in”, and Frosty the Snowman makes a frightening resurgence as Creeptoons’ top hat donning “Frostillicus”. Take a look at more of the holiday inspired works in “Winter Salon V”, below, now on view at Stranger Factory through January 3rd, 2016.
Carisa Swenson
Keely Reichman
Yosiell Lorenzo
Desiree Fessler
Candice Tripp
Candice Tripp
Creeptoons
Danita Art
Tado
Tado
Max Lehman
Max Lehman
Travis Louie
Praeteritum Nunc Futurum. Translation: Past, present, and future. Tomorrow night, 
"Their world was soft like melancholy. The conversation was silent. Their faces were small and round, incapable of invoking fear. Once the door was open, nothing could be unseen." This is how 