Author Description

"'Desdemona for Celia by Hilton' is a multifaceted collaboration between artist Celia Paul and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Hilton Als. A concise selection of drawings and paintings by Paul are illustrated. In addition, both Als and Paul have contributed previously unpublished texts and a personal selection of photographs to the publication, with is borne ot of a creative conversation inspired in part by Verdi's opera 'Otello". Invited to curate an exhibition at Gallery Met, New York relating to the Metropolitan Opera's recent production of 'Otello' (on view from September 2015 - January 2016) Als was immediately drawn to Paul's delicate and moving explorations of people and landscape. While Paul doesn't work explicitly from literary sources, the human desires and failings Desdemona's story expresses resonate in her haunting depictions of women and water. Titled 'Desdemona for Hilton by Celia' to celebrate the continuing conversation between Paul and Als, the show features new seascapes and portratis win which a sense of mortality coexists with the consoling beauty of nature and the flow of time that connects us all."