Pactolus is a river in ancient Lydia (now Modern Turkey) where the ancients once mined gold and electrum. It was said to be the very place where the legendary King Midas divested himself of his golden touch by washing himself in the waters.
“The Sands of Pactolus” is also the title of Pop Surrealist/ Neo-Symbolist Gromyko Semper’s first solo show in Singapore (c/o Artesan Art Gallery). If you are in Singapore tomorrow please catch the opening on Thursday 7pm, May 28, 2015 at Artzpace 1, Nassim Road #02-02 Singapore 258458.
From his bio:
“Semper’s drawings are executed in the manner of Japanese wood-block prints, whilst embodying a personal, invented mythology like William Blake and J.R.R. Tolkien; the symbolists, surrealists and decadents; and up to and including British artist Patrick Woodroffe’s Mythopoeikon (1976) and The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony (1979) and the forerunner of Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, the visionary, Ernst Fuchs. Whilst Semper’s work has some affinity with Albretch Durer’s woodblock style, it stands apart, drawing on Filipino supernatural folk traditions, Christianity, Jungian psychology, the mysteries of the Kabala and Gnostics whilst employing elements of quantum mechanics, alchemy, world mythology, the occult, classical art symbolism, art nouveau and erotic drawings.”
Gromyko also illustrated one of my short stories “A Secret Map of Shanghai” (which originally appeared in Strange Horizons). This will be included in a future collection of my short stories. Here’s a teaser:
The Infinite Library and Other Stories 