Plum artist takes us ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ in Etna show

From the 19th-century writings of Lewis Carroll to the 20th-century lyrics of Grace Slick, rabbits white and otherwise have come to symbolize departures from the ordinary.

Plum resident Bob Freyer continues the tradition with his latest art exhibit.

“It’s really just taking me away from all the stress and aggravation of reality, and kind of creating my own world of these bunnies gone wild,” he said.

The result is “Down the Rabbit Hole,” a pop-up show scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 11 at .5 Gallery, 407½ Butler St., Etna.

Freyer’s work in a variety of media — inks, acrylics, pastels and watercolors, some atop digitally designed background images — feature a longtime favorite portrait subject. His renderings of rabbits tend to steer clear of the cute and cuddly, veering more toward the surreal and sinister.

“For me, weird stuff is just comfortable,” he explained. “I don’t like seeing the same thing over and over again. Even though I paint bunnies all the time, it’s always different in some way.”

An example is the final work he completed for “Down the Rabbit Hole.”

“It’s a framed piece that has three different portraits of the same bunny, and it’s almost like the stages of a child drawing it,” Freyer said, with the first two sections labeled “beginner” and “pro,” and the third having a wholly ironic designation:

“The ‘legendary’ bunny is one that is just scribbled on there, for the most part. It’s kind of poking fun at art, in a way, and myself because of my style of art,” he said about his often minimalist approach. “I drew it within, I think, five seconds.”

He is fond of combining detailed and rudimentary elements within the same piece. For example, “Bunny Hop” features a finely drawn rabbit’s head and Elizabethan-style collar on a stick-figure body, riding a bicycle with misshapen wheels that would make an art teacher wince.

Freyer’s past series of works includes “Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow,” with each of the rabbits portrayed serving “as a kind of sentimental yet savage docent, present to guide the viewer through the emotions, memories and traumas of the artist.”

Another is “Youth Gone Wild,” in which jaded superheroes and creepy clowns join fang-bearing bunnies for a darkly skewed envisioning of “the imagination we all had as a kid.” The series’ title piece was selected by Spring House Brewing Co. of Lancaster as the label for and name of one of its 2022 offerings, a sour India pale ale.

His latest show is sponsored by the art magazine Petrichor and PGH Print Ship in Etna, where Freyer looks forward to returning to .5.

“That gallery holds a place in my heart, because that was the first real gallery that ever showed my work,” he said. “It’s a small gallery with a lot of wall space, and when you have a show there, it brings it all together.”

As for what to expect with “Down the Rabbit Hole,” in the spirit of Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”:

“The deeper you go, the weirder it gets.”

For more information, visit bfreyerart.com, www.youtube.com/@bobfreyer, @bobfreyer on Instagram and bobfreyer on TikTok.