Mongerson Gallery is thrilled to present Space Travelers, a solo exhibition of works by the Chicago Surrealist artist Julia Thecla (1896-1973).

Once described as “the mystery girl of Chicago art,” Thecla was known for her dreamlike compositions featuring a world of fairies, dancers, animals, and sprites rendered in her signature jewel-toned blues. Space Travelers invites viewers into Thecla’s radiant inner cosmos — an imaginative, escapist world that feels both fantastical and uncannily intimate.

This one-night exhibition and reception will take place on June 11, 5:30-7:30 p.m., with remarks at 6:15pm, at Expansive Superior, 405 W. Superior St., on the 7th floor.

Please RSVP

Julia Thecla Connell was born in Delavan, Illinois, and developed an early passion for art. She attended Illinois State University in Normal for a summer before relocating to Chicago in 1920 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). To support herself, she worked in art and antique restoration. During the Great Depression, she contributed to the Works Progress Administration’s "easel division."

Thecla began to gain national recognition for her work in the 1940s, with a notable exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943. That same year, she was included in Peggy Guggenheim's Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York. She was connected to artists like Ivan Albright and Gertrude Abercrombie and became part of Chicago’s surrealist movement, producing works that were both haunting and whimsical. Active in Chicago’s artistic circles during the 1940s, her popularity waned in the 1950s as abstraction took center stage in the art world. Thecla died in relative obscurity in Chicago in 1973.

Image: Julia Thecla, Hey Diddle Diddle, Oil on canvas board, 11.5 x 13 inches.