Volakis Gallery opened “Echoes of Surrealism,” Saturday. The stunning show features 12 contemporary and master artists from around the world and will be at the Yountville gallery through July 31.

A product of World War I, the Surrealism movement of the mid-1920s offered surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and a sense of the absurd. It was preceded by the Dadaists, who believed that excessive rational thought and bourgeois values had brought that terrifying conflict of WWI upon the world and protested with anti-rational anti-art gatherings, performances, writing and art works.

The Surrealists argued that ordinary and representational expressions are vital and important but that the sense of their arrangement must be open to the full range of imagination. In 1924, they declared their intents and philosophy in the first Surrealist Manifesto. The Volakis show explores comparisons between the social issues of the Surrealist period that produced that philosophy and the work of contemporary artists who find today’s world confronted with many of the same issues.

Included in the show are artists from around the world, including Gio Biondi, Jean-Paul Bourdier. M.C. Escher, Misha Gordin, Heather Gorham, Michael Madzo, Rene Magritte, Michal Macku, Roberto Matta, Brian Oglesbee, Nabuo Satoh, Suzanne Sbarge, Rocky Schenck and Flo Simon.

Volakis Gallery at 6730 Washington St., Yountville is open Wednesday through Thursday and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 7 p.m., and by appointment. Info, 945-1125 or toll-free (866) 945-1125, or www.volakisgallery.com.