Photo by Amy Mayes Photography
Wax women & Bare bones
Evan Michelson is primarily known as a collector and dealer of rare and beautiful antique objects. She was co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities - a cultural landmark in New York’s East Village - for more than two decades, and the co-star of the hit reality TV show “Oddities” which ran for five seasons on Discovery Science. Although the history of science and the history of medicine have been the focus for most of her career, she started out collecting and restoring Victorian hair work, Victorian women’s fancy work and objects of mourning. She has curated several exhibitions of Victorian hair work (including Woven Strands: the Art of Human Hair Work at Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum) and is recognized as an authority in that field. Bringing together esoteric, liminal and obscure objects, both natural and manmade, has been Evan’s primary focus for many years. She was a pioneer in the most recent popularization of cabinets of curiosity, and helped spearhead the introduction of antique medical and scientific specimens and instruments, taxidermy, and objects of mourning into the popular visual culture. As a founding board member of the Morbid Anatomy Museum (and Morbid Anatomy’s first Scholar-in-Residence) Evan has been at the forefront of death culture and the aesthetic of sublime melancholy. Evan is also an essayist, lecturer and award-winning curator, specializing in the history of the liminal, the bizarre and the esoteric. She has lectured widely on the history of the Gothic, the culture of human relics, and the infamous Saddest Object in the World. Evan is currently the owner of Obscura West in Lambertville, NJ, featuring objects of enigmatic beauty.