Christina Kenton: Lucid Dreams of Vertigo

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Christina Kenton, "Crowded Dog," 2018-2019

canvas, acrylic, found object, cigarette lighter, 6" x 8" x 4"

We are following the recommendations of the Minister of Health while supporting anyone who can stay at home in order to help flatten the curve. 

As a result of COVID-19 we closed this past Tuesday Christina Kenton's Lucid Dream of Vertigo. We want to thank Scout Magazine for adding her works in their Cool Things We Want  list.  Her work however can now be viewed and purchased online here. We are also offering  FREE shipping as an incentive. 

Our upcoming exhibition with Annie Briard for the Capture Photography Festival is going ahead, but with modifications. 

For us, to turn to our artists for insights and ways of coping is just a natural thing to do. We have asked our artists to send us a video from where they are living asking them how it feels to be waking up in their respective cities and to comment on this pandemic. To watch these videos please go to our website

Finally, we would like to encourage you to stay home and to contact us via phone or email to either share your stories or make suggestions. One thing is clear the future has just slightly changed and we need each other. 

Be safe, 

Mónica Reyes Gallery 

Christina Kenton first elected to make protectors for her lighters' because at night, left outside, they got chilly. And in the morning after a stay in the great outdoors they often would no longer work. So she built her lighters a casing to keep them warm.

But instead of a simple sleeve, she creates fanciful, hand-sewn worlds that swallow the lighters whole. For one cigarette lighter Kenton crafted a bed with pillows the pattern of a cloud-dappled sky. In it, a green fruit and a rogue flamingo watch idly by as an unexplained cavity tears through the bed "Nightmare on Elm Street" style, with a yellow hand reaching out from what's underneath. Magritte would surely appreciate the horror.

It's not too surprising that dreams are a main source of inspiration for this Vancouver-based artist.

Many also contain fantastical animals -- two-headed pigs, snakes emerging from cows and horses with necks that droop down to the floor. Kenton also cites her late grandfather, surrealist painter Ladislav Guderna as a major influence.

Kenton starts by sewing each case by hand, then applies a paper technique to bring her three-dimensional sculptures to life. She tops them off by hand-painting the exteriors and sometimes affixing a miniature or two to the hybrid dioramas.

Christina has been creating her lighter protectors for around a decade now. Along with the common therapeutic effects of art making, Kenton also noticed the repetitive, detailed work helped soothe her chronic vertigo. This is Kenton's first exhibition with the gallery.