A&O Meetup in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday, September 24th

MISSOURI - Meetup in Saint Louis with Alpha Omega Arts this Saturday, September 24 for the opening reception of the 2011-2012 exhibition season at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art featuring the works of Adrian Kellard and two special features:

• Opening reception at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art on the campus of St. Louis Catholic University;
• Download an informational sheet on Kellard about the intersections between "Compassion and Art."

If you've yet to join an AOA Meetup, this will be one weekend you will not want to miss. To RSVP or for more information, contact meetup@alphaomegaarts.org.

Former chapel sanctuary is the main gallery of MoCRA (Spring 2011)

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INSPIRE ME! Artist, Gerda Liebmann

Art has an inherent ability to express the divine

~ GERDA LIEBMANN

Splintered Cedar installation with mulch and cedar chips 8' diameter

By Ernest Disney-Britton

When I asked Swiss-born, now New Jersey-based Gerda Liebmann to join us in the INSPIRE ME series, her gentle answer was, "Thank you for the opportunity." There is an intense gentleness about Gerda's expressions, in her paintings, sculptures and installations which make her ideal for this series. I hope you find that same gift in her works.

Gerda Liebmann profile with teacup

GERDA: Art has an inherent ability to express the divine. It speaks directly to the part of us that responds viscerally to beauty—and that responds to the meaning things have, simply because they are. That's why art is especially helpful for bringing new life to familiar scriptures.I really try to use the right medium for the message. So my work includes painting, photography, video and installations. I am often inspired by scripture. But I also draw inspiration from the expressions of God’s being I find in the world.

"The Wind Blows Where it Wishes" (Watch: Video)

"Salvation: Self Portrait Triptych"
acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, 3 x 20" x 16"

GERDA: I share the trust of the Church in a redeeming God who is bringing us from lostness to foundness through the work of the Cross and the new life of the resurrection. Central to my faith is the love by which God unites us with Himself and each other.

"Beauty Instead of Ashes,"
acrylic on canvas, collage, plaster, gold leaf , 12" x 12"

GERDA: Some people are highly resistant—if not outright hostile—towards art that has an explicitly religious theme. Also, the gestation process for a piece that combines both esthetic and doctrinal integrity can be trying to them.

"The Body - The Blood"
fabric, hosts, veil, dye, 2 x 12' x 2'

GERDA: I appreciate Makoto Fujimura and Bruce Herman, because of their love for God, people and beauty—and because of the guidance they’ve given me personally. Other favorites are Chagall (for his whimsy and narrative language), Van Gogh (for the sheer physical intensity of his canvasses) and the abstract expressionists as a whole.

"Because of the Cloud"
acrylic on canvas, gold leaf, 4' x 6'

TAHLIB: We at Alpha Omega Arts invite you to discover more about Gerda Liebmann and her work. Please visit her website, follow her blog or join us in following her on twitter too:

• http://www.gerdaliebmannarts.com/

www.gliebmann.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/imxinmei

Gerda's "Daily Cross" photo invitation

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Tyler's "Coffins, Ready to Ship to You"

AOA NEWS

"Coffins, Ready to Ship to You" by Tyler Allen

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Holy Flame Turns Out to be Hoax in Southern India Temple

PHILSTAR

Pilgrims marching to the Makara Jyothi, or the Makaravillaku

INDIA - The Makara Jyothi, or the Makaravillaku, the so-called divine flame which flickers three times atop Ponnambalamedu Hill opposite the Sabarimala shrine in south India's Kerala, is not a celestial occurrence but a fire lighted by men, rather by the officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). High-level sources in the Board itself have admitted that the Makaravilakku is not a celestial manifestation. It is lit by humans and is a complete hoax. "The light is not magic nor even a natural phenomena," sources said on condition of anonymity. [link]

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Walk the Delaware Art Museum's Labyrinth, for Free

NEWS JOURNAL

Labyrinth at the Delaware Art Museum

DELAWARE - Walk a labyrinth. The Delaware Art Museum will sponsor a summer solstice walk June 21 at 6 p.m. If you're in Lewes, you can always walk the small labyrinth near St. Peter's Church on Second Street. Find a list of area labyrinths at http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/  (locator link in the upper right hand corner) or http://www.labyrinthlocator.org/. [link]

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My Daily Cross Challenge

ALPHA & OMEGA PRIZE

By ERNEST BRITTON

"Closet Cross"

This June's INSPIRE ME! artist Gerda Liebmann has issued a challenge to find a Cross in your life each day for a year. I'm taking her up on that challenge for the entire month of June. Gerda's rules are simple enough for any artist or non-artist to follow. I'll be searching around the house, the garden, downtown and everywhere I go to find one Daily Cross in the "found objects" of life. Above is my first one. It's my closet door.

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Sacred Ink Exhibit: Spiritual Tattoos

THE NATION

THAILAND - Anglo-French-photographer Cedric Arnold explores his fascination with tattoos in "Sacred Ink", an exhibition that runs until June 25 at the Art Centre in Chulalongkorn University's Centre of Academic Resources.The show features more than 45 large format black-and-white photographs taken in Thailand, as well as sound, video and multimedia projections that take the viewer deep into the world of spiritual tattoos. [link]

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Hamas Founder, and Spiritual Leader's Home Becomes Museum

CBS NEWS
By Associated Press

GAZA STRIP - The Hamas militant group has turned the modest home of its founder into a museum — seven years after the wheelchair-bound Palestinian cleric was killed in an Israeli airstrike as he was wheeled out of a mosque. The Sheik Ahmed Yassin museum, located in an alleyway in the rundown Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, has become a popular destination since it opened last month. Dozens of schoolchildren and well-wishers visit each day. [link]

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Art Reviews: Bali in San Francisco

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

The rice goddess Dewi Sri, made of palm leaves
during the early to mid 20th century, is in this show.

CALIFORNIA - [The Asian Art Museum's] vivid current special exhibition, which is as stimulating to look at as it is to think about. Among others things, it offers a plausible model for how to do a historical loan show that a) uses unfamiliar and affordable materials (many of the objects are from Dutch ethnographic museums); b) finesses the vexed issue of authenticity by seamlessly linking a high-art past with the tourist-art present; and c) gives us exoticism but tempers it with realism. [link]

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Memorial for Jonestown Mass-Suicide Erected After 32 Years

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES

Friends and family members were encouraged to make crayon rubbings
of the Jonestown memorial plaque unveiled Sunday (Image Courtesy OaklandNorth)

CALIFORNIA - 32 years ago, 918 followers of Jim Jones died at Jonestown, the spiritual encampment established in the jungles of Guyana intended to be utopia. The victims were coerced by Jim Jones in the Peoples Temple to drink cyanide-laced koolaid as authorities closed in on his camp, resulting in one of the largest mass suicides in history. Red tape and conflicts among families over whether to include Jones' name on the memorial spanned 32 years until a resolution was made Thursday when an Alameda County Superior Court judge gave permission to proceed with the memorial, which includes Jones' name among the victims.[link]

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Travel to Where, My Jesus is Bigger Than Yours

HUFFINGTON POST
By Kevin Richberg

BRAZIL - The world is currently gripped in a struggle to see who has the biggest Jesus Christ. This "tourist envy" battle began in the late 1920s with this famous Art Deco Jesus featured in this postcard from The 30 Postcards Project. My prediction is that within the next two years someone, somewhere will build a larger Jesus. The tourist world's appetite for huge things will never be satiated. Build them and they will come! [link]

• The artistic and powerful Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) Statue on Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the entire city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cristo was unveiled in 1931 as the World's Largest Statue of Jesus Christ.
• Contemporary to Christ the Redeemer was Cristo del Otero, a statue in Palencia, Spain designed to be the largest in Europe (world) at the time but without the funding power of the Rio project.
• Fast forward to 1994 and you have Bolivia, Brazil's neighbor, getting in on the action. Bolivia goes for the gold by designing the Cristo de la Concordia, which becomes not only the largest statue of Jesus Christ in the world but also the largest statue of any kind in South America.
• By this time in history Protugal, Vietnam, East Timor, Peru, Colombia, France and Mexico all have built Jesus statues between 25 and 30 meters tall, just shy of Cristo in Rio.
• Enter the small town of Świebodzin, Poland on the border with Germany (population ~21,000). They revealed in November of last year the World's Largest Jesus, much to the dismay of folks in Brazil. 

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Bad Church Art: LA Madonna vs. Samurai Jack

THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
By Steven Greydanus

CALIFORNIA - Okay, so Jimmy got the ball rolling commenting on Rome’s New UGLY John Paul II Statue … and then a reader commented:  Speaking of ugly religious-themed art, anyone ever see the statue of Mary that is in front of the LA Cathedral? She looks like a character from Star Trek.… so I just had to say something. [link]

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ACLU Seeks to Cover Prayer Art

CRANSTON PATCH
By Mark Schieldrop

RHODE ISLAND - The Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a preliminary injunction for the prayer art banner to be removed until a final outcome in their April civil rights case filed on behalf of a student. The controversial art banner has been the subject of heated debate since the ACLU said it planned to file a lawsuit after the school district declined to voluntarily remove it. The prayer themed banner, one of 21 different student art banners in the auditorium, has hung on the wall for almost 50 years.

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When Art Was a Religion, Camille Saint-Jaques

HUFFINGTON POST
By David Galenson

FRANCE - Saint-Jacques was born in Colombes in 1956. Growing up he had little interest in school; his two passions were art and radical politics. His love of politics did not survive the 1980s, but his love of art did. He was fascinated by the American art he saw at Ileana Sonnabend's gallery in Paris, especially the work of Frank Stella and Robert Smithson. He studied art history in Paris, and became a teacher in Colombes, where he continued to work at painting. He sees a clear change in the values of the art world since the beginning of his career: "Fifty years ago, art was a religion. It was a question of faith. Now, there's no room for this. Art today is a market, an industry with hundreds of dealers. It has become like fashion. An artist has to change his style every six months to be successful. Success today is making art that surprises people--art that makes people say 'wow!'" [link]

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'Hobbit' Films Get Names, Release Dates

POPEATER
by the Editors at Moviefone

NEW ZEALAND - The official titles of the two upcoming 'Hobbit' films have just been announced and there's none of this boring 'Part 1' and 'Part 2' nonsense. The first of the two films will be called 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' and the second 'The Hobbit: There and Back Again.' The first references one of the book's chapter headings, the second is actually part of author J.R. R. Tolkien's original title, 'The Hobbit or There and Back Again.' (We're betting movie marquees will still opt for the simpler '1' and '2.'). And now fans have official release dates to circle on their calendars: 'Journey' arrives as an early Christmas present on December 14, 2012 and its follow-up also has a holiday release, December 13, 2013. [link]

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Arts Project's Raising Funds, Without Judgement

NPR NEWS
By Tamara Kieth

NEW YORK - The website Kickstarter.com  has been around for two years now, helping artists, musicians and filmmakers fund their projects by getting a lot of people to make small donations. Projects that in the past had little hope of getting funding suddenly have the cash they need. Recently, entrepreneurs have started using the site to launch new products, something the company's founders never imagined. [link]

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Aminah Robinson's Latest at the Columbus Museum of Art

COLUMBUS DISPATCH
By Christopher Yates

"My Lord, What a Morning" By Aminah Robinson

OHIO - Acknowledging and celebrating the city's bicentennial, the Columbus Museum of Art is offering several programs and exhibitions through 2012. The series will kick off with a retrospective of noted hometown artist and storyteller Aminah Robinson: "Street Talk and Spiritual Matters," a record of the people, experiences and culture of the Near East Side.
Familiar and new works are included in the exhibit. All underscore Robinson's ability to capture physical, emotional and spiritual links to place. Identity is found through community, ancestors and history. The Ghanaian term sankofa - which, translated from the Akan language, roughly means "to go back and take that which you have forgotten" - directs much of her work. [link]

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Scottish Art: 1650-2010, Works from the City's Methodist Art Collection

THE LIST

"Desposition" (1947) By Graham Sutherland

SCOTLAND - The King James Bible has given the English language more phrases than Shakespeare (including such not-at-all clichés as 'feet of clay' and 'reap the whirlwind') and it's 400 years old this month. To wish the good book a happy birthday, Edinburgh Uni's New College is showing paintings from the Methodist Art Collection, including pieces by Graham Sutherland (above), Frink, Rouault and Eric Gill, along with Scottish artists John Bellany, John Byrne, Paul Martin, Craigie Aitchison, Robert Powell and Ken Currie.

This selection of works of modern religious art includes work by a number of well-known artists including Scottish greats Craigie Aitchison, John Bellany, Peter Howson, Ken Currie and John Byrne as well as Graham Sutherland and Elisabeth Frink. These paintings will be set alongside a display of a rare first edition of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible in the 400th year of its publication. ‘This is a brilliant opportunity to view some of our most inspired and inspirational artworks,’ says Monique Sliedrecht, one of the curators of the exhibition. ‘The chance to see pieces responding to what has been dubbed “the greatest story ever told” alongside a rare first edition of the King James Version of the Bible, which has done so much to affect the nature of our society, is too good to miss. Everyone who visits the exhibition will learn much and will, I am certain, go away from the exhibition hugely stimulated by what they will see.’

New College, University of Edinburgh, until Sat 11 Jun. [link]

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Experience the Fun of India in the Navagrah Temple Tour

AOA NEWS

India's Navagrah temple

INDIA - South India has proven as a renowned holy destination that encompasses several ancient temples as the major attractions of the state. Among all these cities of South state, mostly tourists are crazy about Tamilnadu tour that is known as the journey of holy shrines of the city as well. You can tour to any of the Tamilnadu temple, but Navagraha Temple Tour is unique one that enables you to explore the beauty of this temple and lots more excitement as well.

As Navagrah temple is devoted to the Hindu lord Shiva and its specialty comes through the placement of nine celestial bodies of the universe in this shrine. Apart from the holy temples of Tamilnadu, you can also grab the chance to explore the beauty of exotic sea beaches, hill stations, beautiful lacks and rest of the greenery parts of the city. The Tamilnadu tourism is one of the highly acclaimed tourism firms in India which has offered profitable Tamilnadu tour packages for global tourists.[link]

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Portrait of the artist as a headscarf-wearing woman

HAARETZ.COM
By Tomer Rotem

Opening Reception in Jerusalem, By Tomer Appelbaum

ISREAL - Female artists from the religious community face innumerable barriers to joining the art world; one project in Jerusalem aims to give them a warm home and a push out of the nest. Art study was once banned in religious schools due to the resistance to art among religious Jews that is rooted in the prohibition against making "graven images." But around 10 years ago this wall began to crumble, mainly because rabbis came to realize that religious study is not suitable for everyone and that the therapeutic aspect of art could prevent certain students from leaving yeshiva and the world of religious observance. A few yeshivas began to offer art studies, and the trend spread to the ulpanot as well. Graduates of these tracks, especially female, began enrolling in art school. [link]

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Blake Prize Challenges Artists to Examine Religion

THE DAILY EXAMINER
By Ana Vlastaras

Blake Society chairman Rev Dr Rod Pattenden

AUSTRALIA - An alternate and insightful look into the world of religion is on offer at the Grafton Regional Gallery, since the travelling Blake Prize exhibition came to town last week.
The prize, which was established in 1951, is an open art prize that challenges artists to explore the religious and spiritual in art. It is open to all faiths, artistic styles and media. "We encourage artists to do works about what really annoys them or touches them and to do it with innovation. “I also think that to live fully within a religious organisation, you need to be able to make fun of it and have a laugh. Many of our entries do exactly that,” Rod said. [link]

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Wisconsin's Virgin Mary Shrine Drawing More Visits

FOX 11
By Ben Krumholtz

WISCONSIN - Our Lady of Good Help near Champion has always had a strong showing at its May Celebration. “It used to be just a local event with 200 to 300 people,” said Karen Tipps, a caretaker for the church. This year, the shrine's event drew about 700 visitors. “It's a lot of out of town people,” said Tipps. Tipps says things have picked up since last December when Bishop David Ricken made Our Lady of Good Help the first bishop recognized apparition site in the United States. The holy site is funded solely from donations. [link]

Virgin Mary shrine drawing more visits: fox11online.com

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In prayer, Jews face Jerusalem but Muslims face Mecca

CANADA FREE PRESS
By Victor Sharpe

ISREAL - Jerusalem Unification Day has again been celebrated in Israel and throughout the world with the exception of that 7th century alternate universe: the Muslim world. It marks 44 years since the amazing and miraculous event took place when the Jewish people’s 3,000 year old capital city was restored to the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War. It would be a cataclysmic and symbolic act of betrayal of Jewish history and faith if any part of Jerusalem is lost to the Jewish people by this generation of Israelis.

For Jews, Jerusalem is the spiritual and temporal heart. It would also be a reverse for the Christian world. Only under Israeli administration has Jerusalem been open for free and unfettered worship to members of all faiths. The prayer uttered at Passover and Yom Kippur—“Next year in Jerusalem”—must not become an empty phrase made bitter in its very utterance by abandoning much of eternal Jerusalem to placate a fraudulent Arab people called Palestinians and appease a hostile world by succumbing to an equally fraudulent peace. It is instructive to note that in prayer, Jews in synagogues face Jerusalem while Muslims in mosques face Mecca. This Islamic practice, even on the Temple Mount, speaks volumes. [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | TALK OF WEEK

AOA WEEKLY PICK:  

"Rainbow Gravity" by Ian Davenport (above), and other religious and spiritual arts news stories of the past week are listed below. AOA NEWS is new each weekday with an email news summary on Sabbath Sunday. If you’re interested in daily updates, you can subscribe by Facebook or Twitter. This week's collection of interfaith art stories are grouped into six categories: Books, Congregations, Galleries, Film/Video, Museums, and Shrines.

BOOKS:

• Book Review: Praying with Icons (Speros News)
• Gundler Prize Goes to Scholar of Medieval Icons from Indiana (AOP TIMES)

CONGREGATIONS:

• California Sculptor Jan Krawczyk Creates New 9/11 Cross for WTC Church (The Malibu Times)
• Bill Voila's "The Messenger" at Durham Cathedral (The Guardian)
• Artistic Founders of  NY's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors Present in Idaho (Idaho Mountain Press)
• Cornelia Parker's "Thirty Pieces of Silver" Installed in Former Church (Yorkshire Post)
• Sacred Art of the Russian Church on Display in Moscow Art Gallery (Reuters)
• Christian Leaders Debating Place of Nudity in Religious Art (The Salt Lake Tribune)

GALLERIES:

• 2011 Winner of Australia's Clancy Prize for Religious Art (Canterbury Bankstown-Express)
• Routes Gallery of Asian Art in Marian County, California (Patch)
• Aros Crysto's GOD Jeans (Westside Today)
• US Jewelry Designer Remakes Life in Mexico (McClatchy)
• Jamaican Bishop Calls Jesus Sculpture "Satanic" (Jamaica Observer)
• Art Review: Ian Davenport's "Rainbow Gravity" vs. The Methodist Art Collection (The Scotsman)
• Justin Bieber Get's New Religious Tattoo (Just So You Know)
• Rembrandt's, and More in Thrivent Financials Christian Art Collection (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• Religious Art Gallery Moves Next Door to Strip Club (KEZI 9 News)
• Detroit Collectors Show-off Czech Shadow Box with Music (Detroit News)

FILM/VIDEO/MUSIC:

• Canadian Punk Rock Band Sparks Controversy over Jesus-Turd Album Art (Gawker)
• Canadian Punk Band Returns Govt Loan (CBC)
• Movie Review: Pirates of Caribbean (AOA NEWS)
• Cannes Gives Top Prize to "Tree of Life" (The New York Times)
• Movie Review: Children of God (The New York Times)
• Jelle de Ridder's video, "Bill Voila's Life...in 60 Seconds" (Alpha Omega Arts)
• Producer of "Survivor" to Turn Bible into Mini-Series (Hollywood Reporter)
• "Hole in the Head" is a stunning documentary about Faith and Survival (AOA NEWS)

MUSEUMS:

• Giovanni Bellini's "St. Francis in the Desert" Re-Introduced at Manhattan's Frick (AOA NEWS)
• African Sculptural Art on Display at New Orleans Museum of Art (AOA NEWS)
• Asian Art Museum of San Francisco's Bali Exhibition (The Los Angeles Times)
• Video Artist Marco Brambilla at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (The Los Angeles Times)
• The Many Faces of Hindu God Vishnu at Nashville's Frist Museum (The Kansas City Star)
• October Weekend of Travel to NYC Includes Ludwig Blum at Museum of Biblical Art (AOA NEWS)
• Major Islamic Art Show Hampered by Dispute Between Russia and US-Based Jewish Group (The Los Angeles Times)
• Issues in Presenting Islamic Art in British Museums (Islam Online)
• Joshua Goode Awarded Dallas Museum of Art Grant to Study African Spirituality (D-Magazine)

SHRINES:

• Vatican Explains Pope's Virgin Mary Mosaic (Catholic News Agency)
• Wisconsin's Virgin Mary Shrine is also a Home (Chicago Reader)
• Chinese Govt Battles Vatican Over Control of Shrine (Catholic Culture)
• Vatican Slams Modernist Sculpture of Pope John Paul ll (Artdaily)
• Pope Shuts Down Monastery with Dancing Nun (The Mail)
• Icon Painter Fernando Arango-Fernandez on Display at Florida Shrine (St. Augustine Record)
• Religious Relics Still Making Rounds (The Oregonian)

Prayer for the week: With 55 days left to completion, we ask for your prayers for Canadian artist, Mark Philip Venema as he works through cultural barriers in completing his installation in South Korea, "Entrenched Thought" a spiritual work bridging a great divide.



THE KANSAS CITY STAR



THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE



THE LOS ANGELES TIMES



AOA NEWS



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Pope Says "No" to Dancing Nun but "Yes" to Topless Male Acrobats?

This week Pope Benedict XVI closed a monastery in Rome because of a dancing nun. However this December 15 video shows bare-chested acrobats performing for the Pope at the Vatican during his weekly general audience. Is there a gender equality issue here?

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Christian's Ask, "Does Nudity Belong in Religious Art?"

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Peggy Fletcher Stack

"Last Judgement" by Michelangelo

UTAH - The Rev. France Davis doesn’t want any nude Adam-and-Eve figures in his Salt Lake City church — even if they were painted by the famed Michelangelo himself. Davis is unequivocal in his view that there is nothing inspiring or redeeming about naked figures in religious art. “Since we sinned, as it says in the book of Genesis, the human body has certain parts that are private,” says the outspoken pastor at Calvary Baptist Church. For other Christians, though, when to celebrate or eschew artistic nudity is not that easy nor clear-cut.

Pope Benedict XVI recently praised the use of nudity in the 16th-century masterpiece, The Last Judgment. “The bodies painted by Michelangelo are filled with light, life and splendor,” the pope said in a news story from Deutsche Presse-Agentur. “He wanted to show that our bodies contain a mystery: within them the spirit is manifest.” When the Rev. Sam Wheatley was leading a congregation in Atlanta, the group decided to engage area artists by creating a gallery in the church foyer to display their creations. They produced works that coincided with Wheatley’s sermons and then a jury of their peers decided which ones to exhibit. The question immediately arose: What about pieces with nudity? [link]

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Religious Relics Embody Belief and Still Make the Rounds

THE OREGONIAN
By Nancy Haught

Stole of John Paul ll

OREGON - Religious relics -- bits of bone, strands of hair, drops of blood -- are back in the news. For some believers, relics are a connection to saints, those men and women who endured often difficult lives without losing faith. [link]

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Moscow Spotlights Russia's Sacred Roots in Religious Art Show

RUETERS
By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya

Visitor explores religious artworks on display

RUSSIA - Russia opened an unprecedented exhibit of religious art pulled from across the country and abroad at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery on Thursday, in a show of Kremlin support for an Orthodox Church growing more powerful since the fall of Communism. The state-sponsored exhibit “Holy Rus” displays art works from the Old Eastern Slavonic state, which existed in the middle ages and united the lands of modern Belarus, Ukraine and the European part of Russia, with its capital in Kiev. Russia inaugurated a new holiday last year to mark its adoption of Christianity in 988 by the leader of the Kievan Rus Prince Vladimir more than 1,000 years ago. “It isn’t the political state called Russia, whose history we are telling here, it’s the historic period of ‘Rus’ we are showing,” Orthodox church representative Father Nikolai Kim said. [link]

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Peter Shelton's "Body" of Work in Oregon

THE OREGONIAN

Current installation at Portland Museum of Art

OREGON - Since the late 1970s, sculptor Peter Shelton has made work primarily about the body. Most obviously, his objects and installations invoke the body in formal terms, as he mimics the supple curvature of flesh or employs familiar structures as anatomical stand-ins, such as pipes for veins. But Shelton, who lives and works in Los Angeles, also conceives of his sculptures as objects to be interacted with, calibrated to produce a precise relationship to the bodies of viewers.  [link]

Animalines

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Collectors: Debbie and Roger Novotny Czech Shadow Box

DETROIT NEWS
By Khristi Zimmeth

MICHIGAN - Debbie and Roger Novotny of Rochester are among the many people who appreciate religious art. "We have an antique religious Jesus, Mary and Joseph shadow box with music," they wrote to Trash or Treasure recently about a large and unusual piece in their possession. "I am told that it has double music box and that it might be Swiss.We inherited it from my husband's parents, who are from the Czech Republic.In the background is one of the two churches in the city of Prague. [link]

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Pope Shuts Down Monastery in Rome with Dancing Nuns

THE MAIL
By Nick Pisa

Sister Anna's modern dance in front of an altar with a crucifix on YouTube

ITALY - Pope Benedict XVI has closed a monastery visited by Madonna and where a stripper turned nun was a star attraction. Vatican officials launched an inquiry following claims of 'liturgical abuse' at the monastery, after reports that the nuns were dancing around the altar during services. Among them was sister Anna Nobili, 38, who became an overnight YouTube sensation after footage of the stripper turned nun preaching was posted on the internet. [link]

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Religious Art Gallery Moves Next Door to Strip Club in Oregon

KEZI 9 NEWS
By Susan Gagar

OREGON - A public art display is sparking controversy. Patrons of the Silver Lace Strip Club are now faced with holy crosses and the words "redemption" and "salvation" on a walk into the night club. The Eugene Storefront Art Project hopes to attract new life into Springfield's downtown with a unique set of recycled crosses left over from a Riverside Church display. [Video]

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Uncommon Corporate Collection - Christian Art in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE
By Mary Abbee

"Christ Preaching" (1652), By Rembrandt

MINNESOTA - Common sense says that you need to head for a major museum to see important work by top artists such as Durer, Rembrandt or Picasso. Or you can go to the Minneapolis headquarters of Thrivent Financial, an insurance and investment advisory firm where 35 impressive pieces by many of the greatest names in European art are on now on view in a handsome gallery. Called "Faithful Impressions," the show features etchings, engravings, drawings and a few paintings on Christian themes spanning 500 years. An accompanying book, with insightful prose to match its beautiful design, is on sale at Thrivent's website. The collection was assembled over the past 30 years by the Rev. Richard Hillstrom, a now-retired Lutheran minister who acquired the art for Thrivent, formerly known as Lutheran Brotherhood. While the 800-piece collection is rooted in the Lutheran tradition, it embraces a multi-doctrinal spectrum of talent including Durer, Rembrandt, Lucas Cranach and their mostly Protestant northern European contemporaries, along with Guido Reni, Guercino, G.D. Tiepolo and other dominantly Catholic Italians of the 16th to 18th centuries. From the 19th century it features English mystic William Blake and French academician J.A.D. Ingres and his compatriot James Tissot, among others. Prints by early-20th-century German expressionists Franz Marc, Emile Nolde and Max Pechstein are included, along with a rare "Crucifixion" painted by American artist George Wesley Bellows. That all these talents produced "Christian" imagery is amazing, especially such a prominent hedonist as Picasso. [link]

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Cornelia Parker's "Thirty Pieces of Silver" Installation in a Church

YORKSHIRE POST

Assistant curator in the middles of “Thirty Pieces of Silver" installation

ENGLAND - Blowing up a shed and squashing a brass band’s instruments aren’t the kind of things we normally associate with artists, but Cornelia Parker is anything but conventional. The renowned British-born sculptor and artist has made her name through subverting our perception of objects and one of her most recognisable works – Thirty Pieces of Silver – goes on display in the nave of York St Mary’s from Saturday. The work includes plates, spoons, candlesticks, trophies, cigarette cases, teapots and trombones, which Parker collected and then squashed with a steamroller. Thousands of flattened objects have been arranged into 30 disc-shaped groups and suspended from the roof of the former church by fine wires, so that they appear to hover. The installation, which is on show until the end of October, is part of Art in Yorkshire – a year-long celebration of the visual arts in 19 galleries throughout Yorkshire, supported by the Tate. Thirty Pieces of Silver, part of the Tate’s collection, shows Parker’s fascination with metal and is the seventh installation to be displayed in the medieval church. Parker created the work in 1989 and writing the following year in the British Art Show catalogue for the Hayward Gallery, London, she said: “Thirty Pieces of Silver is about materiality and then about anti-matter. In the gallery the ruined objects are ghostly, levitating just above the floor, waiting to be reassessed in the light of their transformation. “The title, because of its biblical references, alludes to money, to betrayal, to death and resurrection: more simply it is a literal description of the piece.” [link]

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Joshua Goode Awarded Dozier Travel Grant to Explore Spirituality

D- MAGAZINE
By Peter Simek

"What the Thunder Said" (2009) by Joshua Goode

TEXAS - The Dallas Museum of Art has announced its annual awards to artists, which offer grants for travel and special projects to nine individuals. One of two 2011 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant recipients Joshua Goode combines painting and installation to explore the origins of spirituality. With the Dozier Travel Grant, Joshua will travel across Africa and Europe to visit centers of mythology, ritual, and religion, such as temples, cathedrals, and tombs, and will follow the migration path of early man from Africa to Europe. His planned stops include Ethiopia Romania, southwestern France, and northeastern Spain. Joshua has exhibited at galleries throughout Texas, including Guerilla Arts, Dallas; Co Lab, Austin; and Art Storm, Houston Joshua earned his M.F.A. from Boston University and his B.F.A. from Southern Methodis University. [link]

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Exhibiting Islam in British Museums

ISLAM ONLINE
By Alia Raffia Ullah

UNITED KINGDOM - The aim of this article is to investigate the current representations of what is deemed as “non-western” art and how this has affected conditions under which it is possible to exhibit Islamic art in mainstream art gallery and museum settings. I will conclude by suggesting some of the ways in which museums can help to address current concerns by contributing to more democratic representations of multicultural and multi-faith historical identities. [link]

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Icon Painter, Fernando Arango-Fernandez at FL Shrine

THE ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD
By Staff

Fernando Arango-Fernandez painting shrine icon

FLORIDA - The power of Byzantium is what comes to mind when one views the icons with their gold leaf, bright-colored pigments, and burnished, smooth wood. Nowhere is this more evident than at St. Photios National Shrine, 41 St. George St. Housed there is a chapel adorned with hand-painted iconography that takes the viewer back to the Byzantine culture. From Wednesday through Sept. 25, the shrine will host an exhibition of Byzantine-style icons by local iconographer Fernando Arango-Fernandez, whose works are found in St. Augustine's Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, the chapel of the Tolomato cemetery, and in private collections. The creation of icons is the culminating point in Arango-Fernandez's artistic journey, joining as they do the spiritual and the aesthetic. For Fernando, the icons are an all-absorbing experience. "The more I learn about iconography, the more I realize how little I know," the artist said. "It is a profound and mysterious art, and a portal into the Divine, a pilgrimage toward the eternal." [link]

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Justin Bieber Gets Religious Tattoo

JUST SO YOU KNOW
By Nadine Cheung

"Jesus" in Hebrew going down side (not the bird at waist)

HAWAII - Justin Bieber recently went to Hawaii for a little R&R with his girlfriend Selena Gomez, and by walking to the beach in his swimsuit, he inadvertently showed the world his new tattoo. The new ink reportedly says 'Jesus' in Hebrew and runs along the Justin's left side. [link]

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NY Artists Allyson and Alex Grey Bring Chapel of Creativity to Idaho Festival

IDAHO MOUNTAIN EXPRESS
By Sabina Plasse

IDAHO - In 1996, visionary artists Allyson and Alex Grey, along with Wood River Valley resident Bex Wilkinson, co-founded the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors or CoSM. Wilkinson said it all started in the Greys' Brooklyn, NY loft.

"We started the journey to build an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire every pilgrim's creative path as well as help them to embody the values of love and perennial wisdom," she said. "The Cosmic Salon that will be presented at the Sun Valley Wellness Festival is a byproduct of the Ethnocentric Salons that occur at CoSM in New York." Traditionally, the Ethnocentric Salons are an all-night dance party with live painting by the Greys, with art supplies for participants and DJ dance music. All the Cosmic Salon participants from the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors will come from New York to perform in Sun Valley. The Comic Salon will take place on Saturday, May 28, from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Sun Valley Inn Continental Room. Bring art materials and prepare to dance. Tickets are $35 and $15 for students under 21. The event is free for Saturday and weekend pass holders. For details, visit www.sunvalleywellnees.org. [link]

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Play Explores Actress Amy Brenneman's Spiritual Evolution

THE HAVARD MAGAZINE
By Alumni in the News

MASSACHUSETTS - The one-act autobiographical theater piece, Mouth Wide Open, explores moments in actress and producer Amy Brenneman’s spiritual evolution (she concentrated in comparative religion at Harvard) as well as her life as a prominent Hollywood film and television actress. The play, part of the ART’s new “First Look” initiative, will have seven performances from May 24 through May 29. Brenneman wrote the script and created the play in collaboration with New York-based director Sabrina Peck ’84, who directed Mouth Wide Open and with whom Brenneman has worked with since their college days. She jumped into her autobiographical project with both feet. The play has “moments of enlightenment that occur in the most pedestrian settings,” says Peck. On the spiritual side, Brenneman’s views might be summed up in the play’s line, “Everyone is God and everyone is a messenger.” [link]

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Art Reviews: Shadows of the Divine & Gravity's Rainbow

THE SCOTSMAN
By Duncan MacMillan

"Gravity's Rainbow" by Ian Davenport

SCOTLAND - While most protestant churches were pretty hostile to religious art, the Reformation did not mean an end to it. It did mean the game had changed, however.

It was therefore courageous, if optimistic, of the Methodists to defy all this history and start a collection of modern religious art. It is now quite substantial and the bulk of the exhibition Shadows of the Divine, at the University of Edinburgh's New College, is drawn from it. "Shadows of the Divine," Art From the Methodist Collection at New College, University of Edinburgh runs until June 11, 2011.

A contrasting exhibition glorying in colour, Ian Davenport's "Gravity's Rainbow"  at Ingleby Gallery, runs until 23 July. In the Old Testament, the rainbow was God's covenant to Noah; his promise there would not be another flood. Gravity's Rainbow is more prosaic. It appears to take its name from paintings by Ian Davenport in which vertical runs of liquid paint pour down the wall to make polychrome puddles on the floor. They are rather beautiful. Distinctly rainbow-like and blessedly free of either angst or overt meaning, they present colour to be celebrated for its own sake. [link]

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Bishop Denounces Jesus Sculpture in Jamaica as "Satanic"

JAMAICA OBSERVER
By Dr Joseph Ade-Gold
Bishop of Overcomers World Ministries

"Body and Blood of Christ" by Laura Facey

JAMAICA - I strongly suggest that Laura's Satanic Jesus be removed from public view. Whoever keeps such a sculpture keeps a satanic object which has devastating consequences. Laura needs to sanctify her soul lest she will continue to go against moral and spiritual norms. I do not doubt that Laura Facey had an ecstatic experience, but like the injunctions of Paul to the Corinthians: "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" 1Corinthians 14:32. Both the mystic work of art and the prophetic insight are spiritual experiences which require careful interpretation. [link]

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Vatican Slams Modernist Sculpture of Pope

ARTDAILY

Modernist Pope John Paul Sculpture by Oliviero Rainaldi

ITALY - The Vatican on Friday slammed a giant new modernist sculpture that portrays John Paul II, saying the bronze work outside Rome's main train station doesn't even look like the late pontiff. Commuters and tourists say the statue looks more like the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini than the widely beloved pope. [link]

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Movie: "Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed"

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib

INDIANA - Sometimes the secrets we keep are dying to be told. "Hole in the Head: a Life Revealed" is the story of Vertus Hardiman, age 80, who kept a secret since her was 5 years old. He grew up in a place called "Freedom Village" Indiana and during 1927 he was subjected to an experiment at a county hospital. He hides the shocking results under a wig & beanie but still praises God.

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Punk Band Returns Govt Backed Loan Amid Controversy

CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

CANADA - Vancouver punk band Living with Lions will return a loan from music agency FACTOR and withdraw its current album that sparked controversy with its artwork. The band and its label, Black Box, announced on Tuesday that they would voluntarily return a $13,248 loan from the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR) to produce its latest album. FACTOR supports the domestic music industry by distributing funding from Canadian Heritage and radio broadcasters. The band's latest album, entitled Holy Shit: The Poo Testament and released on May 17, features album artwork that emulates the look of a faded Bible and portrays Jesus as excrement. [link]

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The Bible to Become History Channel Mini-series

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
By Lacey Rose

NEW YORK CITY - The History Channel, cable network is readying a 10-hour religious docu-drama for 2013 that will include live-action and state-of-the-art CGI. History has big plans to make must-see-TV out of the Bible. The project, which comes from reality producer Mark Burnett, will air as a five-part, 10-hour scripted docu-drama with live-action and state-of-the-art CGI. Given both its scale and production value, The Bible won't appear on History's schedule until 2013. "This is probably the most important book in mankind, regardless of your beliefs or religious affiliation," History president and general manager Nancy Dubuc tells The Hollywood Reporter. "This series will bring the historical stories of the Bible to life for a new generation." [link]

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Major Islamic Art Exhibit Hampered by Russia's Dispute with US Jewish Group

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Mike Boehm

CALIFORNIA - The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is caught in a dispute between Russian authorities and Chabad, a prominent international Jewish group based in New York City. The suit originated in Los Angeles in 2004 could prevent or delay the loan of nearly one-sixth of a major exhibition on Islamic art set to open at LACMA on June 5.
Museum spokeswoman Barbara Pflaumer said Tuesday that she could not comment on LACMA's efforts to assuage the Russians in hopes of securing the artworks; the situation "is incredibly fragile and we are doing our very best not to make waves," she said, adding that "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts," will take place with or without the pieces from Russia. The Russian cultural ban already has aborted one U.S. museum exhibition and forced the indefinite postponement of another. [link]

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Bill Viola, Resurrecting Religious Art

THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones

"The Messenger" installation for Durham Cathedral

UNITED KINGDOM - [Bill] Viola is the high priest, as it were, of the new religious art. In 1996, he created The Messenger for Durham Cathedral; it went on to tour other religious venues in Britain. He does not need to adapt his work to fit into holy settings. His films are always religious, using simple images such as water, candles and the human figure to portray spiritual crises and profound moments poised between life and death. He is one of the best artists of our time.

But how many Bill Violas are there? Perhaps it is troubling that, in searching for a great new work of religious art, St Paul's Cathedral has commissioned the same man who drew attention to the power of new religious art with his Durham commission 15 years ago. Don't get me wrong – they are right to do so. But perhaps the move also reflects a recognition that modern religious artists are not exactly two a penny, and that putting just any piece of contemporary art in a cathedral is no guarantee of a powerful aesthetic or spiritual experience. Cathedrals are sublime works of art in their own right, and it takes an incisive and at the same time respectful piece to genuinely add to their glories. Bill Viola, meanwhile, shows us that modern art can be both simple enough and spectacular enough to emulate the altarpieces of the past. Whatever your beliefs, or lack of them, Britain's cathedrals and churches are aesthetic treasure vaults. The purpose of contemporary interventions is to unlock them. [link]

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