Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, first published in 1865, Finding Alice: Artists Exploring Wonderland featuring Abelardo Morell explores the enduring influence of the classic story on artists across generations through photography, illustration, and book arts. Finding Alice: Artists Exploring Wonderland featuring Abelardo Morell features works from two photographic series by the acclaimed artist Abelardo Morell, alongside multiple illustrated editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The exhibition includes work by Andrea D’Aquino, Salvador Dalí, Camille Rose Garcia, Yayoi Kusama, Oleg Lipchenko, Peter Newell, Evgeny Alexandrovich Shukaev, among others.

Of his initial Alice in Wonderland series, Morell says, “I designed my images to be situated within a landscape made of books because it struck me that [Lewis] Carroll had linked Wonderland to the idea of discovering imagination by digging deep into the pages of a book. At this time my daughter, Laura, was seven years old and these pictures felt in part to be tributes to her, who like Alice, was an equally brave girl in my life.” 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morell began a second body of work, Through the Looking Glass, shaped by the experience of sheltering in place. Morell found parallels between Carroll’s story and the uncertainties of contemporary life. Morell says, “Alice’s rolling with the punches supplied me with an instructive guide to living in turbulent times. Brave Alice learns to deal with the irrational without ignoring it. She makes her own sense out of nonsense.”  

About the Artist

Abelardo Morell and his family fled Cuba in 1962 and settled in New York City. He is widely recognized for his camera obscura photographs created in locations around the world. His major retrospectives include Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door at the Art Institute of Chicago, which later traveled to the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Morell has received numerous honors, including fellowships from the CINTAS Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award, and a Lucie Award for Achievement in Fine Art. His work is held in major public and private collections worldwide. He lives and works in Boston and is exclusively represented by the Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

Please visit https://houstonlibrary.org/exhibits for more FREE exhibits at HPL and suggested reading for this exhibition.