ALLSTON SKIRT GALLERY is pleased to present the traveling international exhibition "Not a. Lear," a freewheeling group exhibition that has been touring since November 2000, and has now been shown at galleries in Paris, Amsterdam, Ghent and New York City. The genesis of the show reaches back to 1993, when then-30-year-old New York artist Jimi Dams launched the curatorial enterprise ANP. Trying to make some sense of a rapidly expanding world where traditional critical criteria are no longer applied, ANP's intention and ultimate aim is to bring together artists, galleries and not-for-profit organizations in an ongoing series of projects. This in order to create a trans-world corporation, known for its ethical consciousness and faithful comradeship.

ANP as an independent exhibition organizer came to fame, in particular, through City Projects, an international, touring exhibition. This led to ANP being snapped up by several prestigious galleries such as Feature Inc. in New York, Torch in Amsterdam and Art Concept in Paris, to name but a few.

WHAT?

"The ideology of individuality which corresponds with the 'star' goes hand in hand with the ideology of authorship and originality. Everybody would like to believe he or she is not a tourist." Haim Steinbach

"If the people have no bread, let them eat cake." Marie-Antoinette

Not A. Lear refers to the title of René Magritte's painting: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", and serves as the vehicle for an exhibition which consists of drawings by Amanda Lear and the work of contemporary artists.

Not A. Lear reintroduces the childlike games and spirit of the Dada and Surrealist movement by using a popular motive which acts as a playful interrogation of Amanda Lear. Conceptual confusion, symbolic representation and ordered geometry are all part of an ingenuous fragmentation that will be united by contemporary artists.

Drawing heavily on what has been written about Amanda Lear, as well as on the images that have been spread worldwide, Amanda Lear served as the wellspring of the imagination and the home of inspiration for several international contemporary artists. Continued thought processes and investigations on the subject became a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely, that the world of dream and fantasy has been joined to the everyday rational world in an absolute reality, a surreality.

WHO?

List of artists:

Amanda Lear, Lisa Beck, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Huma Bhabha, Dike Blair, Anuschka Blommers/Niels Schumm, Jesse Bransford, Alex Brown, Sico Carlier, Jimi Dams, Lucky DeBellevue, Lorenzo De Los Angeles, Roberto Deluna, Devon Dikeou, David Dupuis, Jason Fox, Sam Gordon, Erik Hanson, Risk Hazekamp, Una Henry, Lidy Jacobs, Kinke Kooi, Dudley Klute, Michael Lazarus, Nicolai, Jerry Phillips, Ilona Rich and B. Wurtz.

Amanda Lear was born in Hong Kong in 1946 (sources mention 1936 as the correct date) to an English/French father and an Asian/Russian mother. During her modeling career, while she was attending St. Martins School of Art in London, she befriended Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones), Bryan Ferry (she posed for the cover of Roxy Music's "For Your Pleasure," a cover that became as famous as the album itself), Marianne Faithfull, Twiggy, Keith Moon and David Bowie. Bowie and Lear had a relationship for over a year; it was Bowie who wanted her to start a singing career. He invited her to participate in his "Midnight Special" shown on NBC in 1974, which is considered the official launch of Amanda's singing career. It was during her modeling years, however, that she met Salvador Dali in a Parisian Restaurant while dining with Brian Jones. It was 1965 and she became Dali's muse and closest friend for over 15 years. She lived with him and his wife Gala in Cadaques until (to Dali's horror) her singing career demanded all of her attention in 1978 with the smash disco-hit "Follow Me." In her book "My Life with Dali" (published in 1985) she wrote: Dali is a genius who likes ambiguity and he tends to talk to women as if they were men.

The fact that Amanda was rumored to have been born a man is what, apart from living with Dali, made her famous. It also lead to Vogue magazine refusing to give her the cover of the magazine while she was a model, but at the same time launched her singing career. Due to her fluency in Italian, French, German, English and Spanish, Amanda Lear is currently the host of two television shows, one airing in Italy and the other in Germany. Her television career was launched in 1982 in Italy and she had several TV shows in both France and Italy. In 1992 she made a French TV movie "A Woman For Me" to critical acclaim and started participating (as a continuous guest) in the most popular French show "Les Grosses Tetes." Last year she made a movie with Gerard Depardieu.

During all those flamboyant years Amanda kept drawing and painting. She started exhibiting her work sporadically in 1994. More information on Amanda Lear can be found at: www.eurodancehits.com/learmain.html

ALLSTON SKIRT GALLERY is now located at 450 Harrison Avenue, third floor, Boston, MA. We are open Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information, please call Randi Hopkins or Beth Kantrowitz at 617-482-3652. Visit our website at www.allstonskirt.com.