Christmas exhibitions

The Christmas season traditionally brings with it several exhibitions focused on Christian imagery and stories and this year sees two particularly interesting examples.

Epiphany at Wallspace showcases contemporary Iconographers working in Britain. This is a uniquely beautiful exhibition with an ambience and setting that supports worship of the reality to which each icon is a window. I was particularly drawn to the work of Dr Stéphané René who practises Coptic Icongraphy. The Contemporary Coptic style is a refreshing alternative to the more familiar styles which is both more stylised and lively in its composition and colours.

At the Chappel Galleries 'The Life of Christ' is shortly to be depicted in ninety-one etchings by Francis Hoyland. These prints were originally commissioned by Aimee and Monroe Price, a well known American art historian and her lawyer husband. One complete edition is in the Print Room at the British Museum where a selection from it was exhibited. On receiving the prints into the British Museum’s Print Room Anthony Griffiths, Head of Prints and Drawings wrote. “It is a most extraordinary and impressive achievement and we are very glad to have it in the department as one of the major monuments of British print making in recent times."

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Mark Olson - The Salvation Blues.