This study explores the images of Darkness and Subversion in the Fairy Tale genre. The findings reveal that contemporary artists have interpreted fairy tale topics from a critical perspective, resolute in shocking readers and reminding them that the world is fractured and fairy tales offer no alternative to banal reality. Artists such as Sharon Singer, Kiki smith, Paula Rego, Miwa Yanagi, Dina Goldstein and Cindy Sherman have revamped literary fairy tales with a sense of subversion, feminist humor, a sense of rage, and with black humor. The work of these artists echo Bakhtin's (1941) notion of the carnivalesque-grotesque. Indisputably, the subversive views of these artists conflict with the customary norms and expectations of traditional fairy tale representations.