Three Monterey Peninsula artists and good friends defy realism in a new exhibit.

It’s shocking how differently a reimagined reality can manifest itself, how differently surrealism, neorealism, hyperrealism and cubism can be presented by individual artists, even if they are close friends.

“The unique perspectives of three Monterey Peninsula artists demonstrate that the definition of contemporary realism has relaxed,” says Darcie Fohrman, an artist in her own right with a background in the museum field, who was recruited by Robert Reese of Carl Cherry Center for the Arts to show works by Kirstine Reiner Hansen (Carmel), Chris Leib (Carmel) and Don Hughes (Pacific Grove).

“I started as a still-life and portrait painter,” Leib says. He is originally from the Bay Area, where he apprenticed with an Italian classical portrait painter, among other things. “Now I work with realism and surrealism and symbolism to discuss different aspects of American folklore and poke fun at it.”

Leib calls his works “misinterpretations of Western civilization.’’ Think about a power-projecting portrait of a silver queen, in the great tradition of royal portraits, that – excellent or not – were in fact propaganda. Leib’s queen, on display at the Carl Cherry Center, comes from an unfinished series.

Leib’s wife, Kirstine Reiner Hansen, was born in Denmark where she studied design and illustration. Before she moved to San Francisco and met Leib, she lived in England and Switzerland.

“I was definitely drawn to old masters and the quiet quality they have,” she says. “We bonded [with Leib] over techniques of classical realism.”

Reiner Hansen’s works are full of figures, often female figures, that seem to live in the inner world, disconnected from landscape and other figures.

After a decade of teaching art, Don Hughes moved to Monterey to work as the VP of exhibitions at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He mostly draws and makes computer-generated images, combining both. One of his pieces shows Leon Trotsky tortured by artist Frida Kahlo, also his lover.

The upside down world at Carl Cherry Center is ready for you whenever you want to enter it.

“Today, when machine algorithms bend the rules of the visual systems we rely on, the realism in this gallery is refreshingly human,” Fohrman says.

REIMAGINED REALISM opening reception takes place 4:30-6:30pm Friday, May 24. Artists’ walk-through at 2-4pm Saturday, June 8. The exhibit is on display until June 22. Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, 4th and Guadalupe, Carmel. Free. 624-7491, carlcherrycenter.org