BATON ROUGE, La. — In the vibrant, boundary-pushing world of pop surrealism, few exhibitions carry the cultural weight and idiosyncratic charm of the Baton Rouge Gallery’s annual Surreal Salon. Now in its eighteenth iteration, the juried exhibition has long served as a crucible for weird, wonderful, and deeply imaginative contemporary art. For Surreal Salon 18, the stakes were elevated even higher under the watchful eye of guest juror Caledonia Curry—better known globally as the celebrated street artist and installation pioneer Swoon.
Amidst a fiercely competitive roster of haunting, museum-quality works, the exhibition’s top honor—Best in Show—was awarded to multidisciplinary artist River Reishi for her mesmerizing sculptural installation, Surface Tension.
The victory marks a defining moment for Reishi, whose practice deftly bridges the gap between permanence and decay, ancient mythology and physical presence. Following her win, Reishi sat down to discuss the conceptual foundations of Surface Tension, the unique culture of the Surreal Salon, the enduring inspiration she draws from trail-blazing women in the arts, and an upcoming international residency in Iceland that promises to merge celestial phenomena with tidal reclamation.
Main Facts: The Triumph of Surface Tension
At the heart of Reishi’s winning submission is Surface Tension, a work that physically and conceptually embodies the liminal space between two entirely different realms. The sculpture depicts a solitary female figure emerging from dark, obsidian-like water, her hands reaching forward as if preparing to break the plane of the liquid barrier and step directly into the viewer’s physical space. Half-submerged and suspended in structural limbo, the figure captures an exact, fleeting fraction of a second.
"From land, the surface of water looks smooth and transparent, almost empty. But of course it hides an entire world that is not ours," Reishi explains. "I have always been fascinated by that threshold. The installation tries to hold that exact moment where the two worlds meet."
Technically, the piece utilizes subtle internal illumination. While initially subdued under the bright, utilitarian overhead lighting of a traditional gallery space, the soft, amber glow of the sculpture reveals itself gradually as visitors approach. This quiet, unassuming reveal acts as a deliberate artistic choice, injecting a sense of impending action into an otherwise static object.
Compounding the visual narrative is the work’s surrounding environment: a loose, hand-drawn field of black sand and raw amber. Rather than relying on rigid binders, the sand is manually manipulated into intricate patterns. The installation is hyper-fragile; even the minor vibrations of a bustling gallery crowd can alter its composition. For Reishi, this lack of permanence is a feature, not a bug.
"Water is often a symbol of life, but it also carries danger and power," she notes, nodding to the collective consciousness of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. "I think some of that tension found its way into the work. I am interested in that fragility, in works that cannot quite stay fixed."
Chronology: From First Impressions to Accidental Intervention
The trajectory of Surreal Salon 18 was defined by a series of serendipitous and striking chronological moments, beginning long before the doors opened to the public.
- Pre-Exhibition Anticipation: Having followed the pop surrealist art community for years, Reishi relocated close enough to Baton Rouge to finally experience the event in person. Long-rumored to act as an unofficial, eccentric prelude to the Mardi Gras season, the salon is famous for drawing patrons in elaborate, handcrafted costumes.
- Installation Day: Upon arriving to install Surface Tension and viewing the works curated by Swoon, Reishi was struck by the universal caliber of the exhibition. "I remember thinking how haunting and memorable every single one was," she recalls.
- The Opening Gala & The Costume Phenomenon: During the opening night celebration, the boundary between art and audience dissolved in real-time. Reishi experienced the surreal validation of watching a gallery attendee model a custom costume explicitly designed around Surface Tension. "It felt like the work had briefly stepped out of the gallery and into the room!"
- The Accidental Stress Test: Early in the evening, an unexpected physical disruption occurred when an attendee accidentally backed into the platform holding the installation. The platform shifted, the sand vibrated, and several intricate, hand-drawn details were momentarily disrupted. While the guest was unhurt, the accident inadvertently revealed the raw mechanics of the piece. Skeptical viewers who had assumed the sand was permanently glued or painted down suddenly realized its ephemeral nature. Reishi calmly sat beside the sculpture for the remainder of the evening, meticulously re-drawing the patterns as crowds watched—transforming an accident into a live performance art piece.
- The Announcement: Later that same evening, Caledonia Curry announced Surface Tension as the Best in Show winner, capping off a night that Reishi described as "surreal in the truest sense."
Supporting Data: Artistic Lineage and Practical Constraints
Reishi’s aesthetic choices are deeply rooted in a blend of practical life realities and a rich art-historical lineage. Her reliance on portable, modular, and ephemeral materials—such as sand, light, and amber—did not initially stem from pure conceptual whim. Instead, it was born out of spatial necessity.
"For a long time I did not have a large studio, so I had to find ways of making work that could expand into a space temporarily and then disappear again," she shares. Over time, those physical limitations evolved into the primary vocabulary of her practice.
Her artistic lineage is similarly intentional, heavily favoring women who have historically had to fight to establish an artistic voice. Reishi points directly to Caledonia Curry’s legendary 2009 Swimming Cities of Serenissima project at the Venice Biennale—wherein a fleet of sculptural, handmade rafts floated uninvited into one of the art world’s most elite, formalized spaces—as a defining moment in her understanding of artistic audacity.
"That kind of boldness has always stayed with me. It is difficult to break into the art world, especially in spaces where voice is carefully selected and curated," Reishi explains. "Seeing an artist carve out space for herself so creatively was incredibly inspiring."
This appetite for cross-cultural and historical inspiration extends globally. Recently, a visit to the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City offered a profound creative reset. Walking through the galleries of figurative ceramics—particularly the spirit-infused Mayan pieces—reignited her passion for sculptural presence, proving that historical artifacts can directly fuel contemporary fine art innovation.
Official Responses: Juror Influence and the Surreal Salon Experience
The presence of Swoon (Caledonia Curry) as the guest juror for Surreal Salon 18 added a distinct layer of gravity to the proceedings. Known for her monumental wheatpastes, intricate block prints, and community-centric architectural interventions, Swoon’s artistic philosophy aligns closely with Reishi’s fascination with myth, storytelling, and temporary spaces.
Reishi notes that watching Swoon’s recent evolution—such as the Sibylant Sisters project, which incorporates original oracle cards and a living mythology—has heavily validated her own narrative-driven approach.
"There is something powerful about artists inventing symbolic languages that people can enter into," Reishi says. Having her work evaluated and ultimately selected by an artist whose career she has admired for over a decade validated the emotional and technical risks embedded within Surface Tension.
Furthermore, the overall response from the Baton Rouge arts community underscored the unique cultural position the Surreal Salon holds. Rather than functioning as a sterile, white-cube gallery experience, the salon fosters an ecosystem where art, performance, and audience participation collide. The synergy between the physical artworks and the audience’s costumed interpretations created an immersive environment rarely matched in contemporary regional art spaces.
Implications: The Road Ahead to Reykjavik and Beyond
With the Surreal Salon 18 victory securely under her belt, Reishi shows no signs of slowing down. Her upcoming calendar points toward an ambitious international project that bridges her love for natural elements, geological time, and celestial events.
This August, Reishi will embark on a residency with Raf Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland. The timing of the residency coincides with two major events: a total solar eclipse passing directly over Reykjavik on August 12, and the city’s massive annual arts and culture festival, Menningarnótt (Culture Night).
Collaborating with a gallery renowned for handling Baltic amber, Reishi plans to construct an ambitious site-specific installation. She will utilize sand sourced directly from local Icelandic shorelines—a material whose texture and aesthetic were originally inspired by Iceland’s famous volcanic Reynisfjara beach. The installation will weave together the mythology surrounding the birth of Baltic amber with cosmic eclipse narratives, exploring the delicate balance between shadow and illumination.
True to her commitment to ephemeral art, the conclusion of the Reykjavik exhibition will not involve traditional de-installation and crating. Instead, Reishi will invite the local community into the gallery space to physically dismantle the work together. Participants will carry the sand back to the ocean, returning it to the tides alongside personal wishes, prayers, and intentions.
Whether exhibiting within traditional museum walls, empty storefronts, or temporary altars built on the Pacific Northwest coastlines of Washington State, River Reishi remains firmly committed to the power of the temporary. Her work asks viewers not to hold on too tightly to physical objects, but rather to fully inhabit the fleeting, magical thresholds where modern myth and natural reality intersect.
River Reishi is a multidisciplinary artist whose sculptures and ephemeral sand installations explore myth, grief, and the mysterious threshold between worlds. Drawing on feminine water deities and ancient storytelling traditions, she works with materials such as sand, amber, and light to create environments that exist only briefly in time.
For more information on her upcoming projects, visit riverreishi.com or follow her on Instagram @riverreishi.
