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Showing posts with label bridge projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bridge projects. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 May 2022

Artlyst: Venice To London May 2022 Diary

My May diary for Artlyst has information about exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, Hignell Gallery London, and Bridge Projects in Los Angeles:

"Several exhibitions/installations in Venice during the 59th Biennale re-situate key works or themes from Christianity’s historic engagement with the Arts, in some cases overlaying biblical narrative onto the present ...

Engaging an ontology of peace, the works in this exhibition and, perhaps, all those highlighted in this article dwell upon our shared yearning for all that is good. Some shroud this hope in the mists of a distant future, but these artists bring eternity into close, immediate proximity—as though we are living in it now. We may not see it, but what we see is not all there is."

For more of my writing about Helaine Blumenfeld's sculptures click here, here, here, here, and for an earlier article about exhibitions at Bridge Projects see here. 

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
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Moby - 'God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters ft. Víkingur Ólafsson (Reprise Version)'
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 21:18 0 comments
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Sunday, 21 February 2021

Artlyst - Blackpentecostal Breath: Spirit-Led Movement Jumps From Music To Visual Art

My latest article for Artlyst is about two exhibitions - Enunciated Life, a current exhibition at California African American Museum (CAAM) and Otherwise / Revival, a forthcoming exhibition at Bridge Projects:

'...plenitude and plurality is found in these collections of artworks composed of worship, lament, joy, word, breath, community, and improvisation, with every piece—sculptures, paintings, video, and performances—emphatically celebrating the significance of music, praise, breath, and community. As the exhibited artists reflect on their traditions, heritages, passions, and talents, they remind us of the dramatic architecture and specific gestures that make clear sensations of desire, longing, faith, and vulnerability. Their works help us explore the innermost emotions that are shared through religion, aiding the prospect of surrender and ecstatic freedom and cultivating spaces where art thrives and expresses a unifying language for all.

Their alternative or ‘otherwise’ modes of existence can serve as disruptions against the marginalization of and violence against minoritarian lifeworlds and possibilities for flourishing. In their work... protest and prayer are fused...'

Genesis Tramaine, who I interviewed recently for Artlyst, features in Otherwise / Revival as does Sister Gertrude Morgan about whom I also wrote recently, again for Artlyst. CAAM will be extending Enunciated Life into the summer.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Articles -

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Sister Gertrude Morgan - Take The Lord Along With U.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 20:32 0 comments
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Thursday, 11 February 2021

Alpha Omega Arts and Bridge Projects

Alpha Omega Arts is a blog by Ernest and Gregory Disney-Britton which is an interesting source of news about artists exploring aspects of art and faith.

Gregory writes:

'Since 2008, we: Ernest and I, have been introducing others to the joy of religious-themed works. We include both sacred art and art that is a response to the sacred. It all began with Kehinde Wiley, and his "Dead Christ in a Tomb," which inspired us to establish the Alpha & Omega Prize. Led by Luke 12:34, "For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also," we've also shared what we collect as part of this Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts.'

The Alpha Omega Prize is a contemporary art recognition for the promotion of religious dialogue in America during the past year which has been awarded since 2008. First awarded to
Kehinde Wiley, the most recent winner is UK-artist Michael Cook for "Christ Weeps Over Lazarus."

Bridge Projects is a contemporary art gallery and curatorial project based in Los Angeles, featuring experimental, research-driven exhibitions by local and international artists. Each exhibition project includes a series of parallel public events – lectures, workshops, performances, salons, conferences, community programs, etc. – in which we gather prominent scholars and artists to help situate these exhibitions within broader art-historical, philosophical, and religious contexts. Their programming is especially aimed at fostering more advanced and more open interdisciplinary explorations of the relations between contemporary art, spirituality, and religious traditions.

Current exhibition 'A Composite Leviathan' draws its title from Yang Jian’s monumental sculpture, “A Composite Leviathan.” The term “leviathan” appears in the Biblical books of Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and Amos. It’s etymological connotation of “joining” suggests the tightly knit scales of a sea dragon. Biblical literature associates this leviathan with chaotic forces which are evidently at odds with the divine, creative order. On account of its apparent etymology, Thomas Hobbes used the term “Leviathan” for the title of his famous political treatise which suggested that national government was a necessary aggregate of social power. Many of the artworks in the exhibition reflect the dynamics of the composite social structures of contemporary society. In A Composite Leviathan, each work emerges from the complex fissures of the artists’ own lived realities, both spiritual and political.

Forthcoming exhibition 'Otherwise/Revival' is a group exhibition that visualizes the impact of the historic Black church— specifically the Black Pentecostal movement—on contemporary artists. Inspiration for the exhibition is drawn from reflecting on the event of the Azusa Street Revival. On April 9, 1906, from a home on Bonnie Brae Street in downtown Los Angeles, Rev. William J. Seymour preached a sermon on the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues that would change the course of spiritual history. People from diverse races and economic classes congregated to hear Seymour’s sermons—sparking the Black Pentecostal movement.

Author and artist Ashon T. Crawley has written extensively on this movement. His concept of “otherwise possibilities” as a reverberation of the Black church experience informed the curatorial query and title of Otherwise/Revival. “Otherwise, as word—otherwise as possibilities, as phrase—announces the fact of infinite alternatives to what is.” For Crawley, the elements of the Black Pentecostal Church—the Hammond organ, emphatic breath, shouting, and glossolalia—create space for “otherwise possibility” to emerge.

The works in the exhibition respond to these “otherwise possibilities” embodied by the Black church. Sculptures, paintings, video, and performances celebrate the significance of music, praise, breath, and community. Exhibited artists reflect on their traditions, heritages, passions, and talents to cultivate a space where art thrives and expresses a unifying language for all.

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Thomas Dorsey - Precious Lord.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 21:20 0 comments
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