Interview with “All That Remains” curator Lana Crooks

“ALL THAT REMAINS” is a group show currently exhibiting at Stranger Factory (alongside BEWITCHING VI), launched since October 7th, and scheduled to end October 31st, 2016. So check them out in person off you are in the area!

Folks interested to snag the artwork on display can check out studio images posted online here (all images in this blogpost via), with all inquiries emailed to strangerfactorysales@gmail.com.

TOYSREVIL had an online chat with “All That Remains” curator Lana Crooks, which you can scroll down to read, alongside images of select artworks to astound! (Thanks for your time, Lana!)


Above-left: “Transplantation” by Sinan Soykut
Above-right: “Quartz” by Tyler Thrasher
Bottom-left: “Skull 3” by Jake Waldron
Bottom-right: “My Anxious Lungs II” by Lauren Marx
TOYSREVIL: What did you had in mind when you were curating “All That Remains”? What would you describe the “theme”, or rather your theme’s need/requirements be?

LANA CROOKS: "When I first thought of doing this exhibit I was mainly thinking about sculptors that either were already working with real bones or made pieces that looked like bone. As I was organizing who I would invite I started thinking about other artists that explore skeletal imagery in their works. So when I invited the artists I told them the exhibit's name and that I was looking for work based on skeletal, anatomical, specimen, and "remains", that they could translate the title however they saw fit."

Above left: “Bishop” by Jessica Joslin
Above-right: “Archaism” by Kristina Drake
Bottom-left: “Ursulus machaera dente” by Stephanie Metz
Bottom-right: “Echo I - for the ones who dream of stranger worlds…” by Mahlimae
TOYSREVIL: The array of genres represented was interesting for me - from sculptures hard and soft, to paper sculpts … How did the choices for artists come about? Any particular traits or styles you were looking for?

LANA CROOKS: "A lot of the artists I have either worked with before or have been a fan of their work for some time. I picked people based on the aesthetics of their works, not everyone sole works within the theme but I could see all the pieces working well together. I was looking for people who I knew could really take the concept and run with it. I did also find a few new artists as I was looking for a variety of genres and mediums to be represented. "

Above: “Forgotten Specimens” by Forest Rogers
Below: “The cracks are there to let the light in” by Matt Hall

TOYSREVIL: This is not the first show you have curated, but compared to your past shows, what might make this “different”, or more unique than the others?

LANA CROOKS: "I have curated a lot of shows over the past years. I was a co-owner / partner of OhNo!Doom Gallery for 4 years so we did a lot of events (A lot of group shows too). I have also helped curate shows at Clutter Gallery like Stitched, Curious Beasts, Adventure Awaits, Tenebrous and Gift Wrapped to name a few. The thing that makes this show different is I think it is just more conceptual than past exhibitions. Normally for a group show I feel like you pick artists work you know will just flow together and ask for a more general theme. For All That Remains I was also picking artists I knew would put more narrative in the work given a more narrow concept."

Above-left: “The Bride” by Virginie Ropars
Above-right: “Finding a new Way home” by Jessica Dalva
TOYSREVIL: Do you have a favourite piece(s) from the show? And WHY?

LANA CROOKS: "I love so much of the work in the show, it was almost torture to not be able to pick up a piece from each artist. One of my favorite pieces is Virginie Ropars's The Bride, It is so eery but delicately beautiful. Her work is really quite amazing. I also love Jessica Dalva's Finding a new Way home for the exact same reason. Her sculpts and tiny costuming are lovely. Darla Jackson did some amazingly detailed birds for this show which hang on the wall or can lay down. I had never seen her work in person so it was great to be able to see how lifelike her work really is. Christina Mrozik also did a pair of stunning bird drawings that I spent some time staring at... basically I could tell you at least one piece from each person that I fell in love with."

(Above artwork by Christina Mrozik)
TOYSREVIL: What was your favourite piece of yours for the show, and WHY?

LANA CROOKS: "I had done the piece Infinity right after deciding on the exhibition. It was swimming in my head for a while to make a large scale spine in this way. It took quite a bit of time to place all the fabric and it turned out just as I had wanted it to."

TOYSREVIL: Why should folks go see “All That Remains”?

LANA CROOKS: "There are a lot of pieces with tiny details that really need to be looked at up close. All the pieces are quite amazing but they look fantastic together as well. I had hung the show like I would hang pieces in my own collection. "

Above-left: “The Last Hour” by Jeremy Bastian
Above-right: “Untitled” by Adipocere
Bottom-left: “Portentum” by Caitlin McCormack
Bottom-right: “Lymantria (The Destroyer)” by Jennifer Joslin