“Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,” said Rilke. Anita Arora pares back the Victorian mania for collecting to exquisitely, almost painfully beautiful understatement and infuses the whole with a timeworn and macabre sensibility. The result is artwork of a hauntingly melancholic elegance.”
– James C. Bassett
“Anita Arora is a chrononaut, an alchemist, and a sculptor of memories. A compelling synthesis of science and beauty, each piece she constructs acts as a temporal window, an ouroboros of past and present. I have been both absorbed and consumed in Morbid Anatomy’s presence.
Her shadow boxes have been known to cure hysterical blindness, incite synesthesia, and bless the viewer with a little death. Any connoisseur of the visual arts should seek out her work.”
– Dave Magus
“I think it took about five seconds between setting my eyes on Beloved Son and deciding that I wanted it. A good thing too, because I placed my offer a little before a couple of other potential buyers and narrowly won out. It now hangs on my bedroom wall and is one of the first things people see and remark on. What I personally find pleasing about this piece is its romantic aesthetic – the ornate frame, the little glass door that hinges open allowing one to peer inside, the fading sepia toned photograph of a child who was beloved to some woman in times past, the dead roses slowly leached of color…
Anita Arora has an eye for finding beautiful, whimsical things and juxtaposing them in different ways to create something completely new. Although this piece is a bit different from her usual line of scientific themed works, it’s my favorite by far.”
– Rashmi Tambe
“Anita Arora, one of Seattle’s finest darkest new talents displayed her gallery of shadow boxes along the art gallery walls of Victrola Coffee and Art located along artsy 15th Ave in the heart of Capitol Hill during the month of October. “Morbid Anatomy” well defines the art enclosed in these wooden frame boxes often labeled under the art medium as ‘shadow boxes’. Collages of instruments, bones, vials, old postcards n’ photos with macabre and eerie angles that captivate and intrigue the viewer. Anita captivates her audience and brings a new look to historical artifacts and mysterious inquiries only the finest curiosity cabinets can achieve. Blending the spectrum of this art form into the viewing glass has never been achieved in more splendor as I have seen of yet. A brilliant artist soon to embrace the world.”
– Leaf McGowen
“I love how the frame of the box dissolves under the folding ruler, creating a trompe l’oeil feeling of immediacy in the viewer’s own space from the layering of the objects, rather than regarding them foremost as objects displayed in the untouchable sanctity of an exhibition box.” In commentary on the piece entitled ‘Sap’
– Jenni Beetem