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ARTNET | NEWS By Sarah Cascone Naudline Pierre, The Thrill of Affection (2018). Photo courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian. Although Pierre graduated from the New York Academy of Art only two years ago, she’s already making a name for herself with a buzzed-about two-person booth at New York’s Armory Show in March. The daughter of a Haitian minister, Pierre grew up in a deeply spiritual community, witnessing exorcisms and learning about the prophets and the apocalypse. That religious imagery suffuses her canvases, which boldly incorporate female nudity while reclaiming the Eurocentric tradition of figurative painting for a black woman. Check it out before it’s gone. [ More ]

HAARETZ.COM  By Joy Bernard “The Lost Key” (2019) by Jordan Nassar.  Credit: Jordan Nassar / Anat Ebgi Gallery In late September, a strange sight greeted visitors to Tel Aviv’s Center for Contemporary Art. A sign at the door scrawled in Hebrew, Arabic and English, featured the name of the supposed resident of this temporary home: Nassar. Jordan Nassar’s unusual background, coupled with the fact that for the past six years he has been married to an Israeli man, has nurtured his strong desire to explore, both personally and artistically, “the land between the river and the sea” — the name he prefers to use instead of “Israel” and “Palestine.” [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Nina Siegal Francisco de Zurbarán’s “Agnus Dei” (1635-40) AMSTERDAM — Two warring nations: one Catholic, one Protestant; one a monarchy, the other a republic; one profoundly religious, the other ambitiously mercantile. How is it possible, then, that 17th-century Spain and the Netherlands, divided in so many ways, managed to produce artists whose works were so similar? That is the central question posed by “Rembrandt-Velázquez,” a breathtakingly lush exhibition of 17-century Dutch and Spanish masterworks at the Rijksmuseum, running through Jan. 19. “For me, it’s a poetic dialogue between two great masters,” Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum, said in an interview. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Ted Loos Lois Robbins with Richard MacDonald’s “Showtime, Atelier,” in her home on the Upper East Side. Credit: Brittainy Newman/The New York Times The actress Lois Robbins is currently starring in a one-woman show that she wrote, “L.O.V.E.R.,” which is onstage Off-Broadway at Pershing Square Signature Center. The show is billed as “one woman’s confession of what goes on behind closed doors and between the sheets.” Ms. Robbins is not shy about sharing her life in art, either. She and her husband, Andrew Zaro, a financial services executive, have amassed a collection numbering more than 100 pieces, by such names as Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor and Wayne Thiebaud . In her collecting, as in her stage work, Ms. Robbins lets instinct guide her. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter “The Madonna of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci PARIS — To judge by the marketing hullabaloo, the Leonardo da Vinci retrospective that opens here Thursday at the Louvre should be the visual equivalent of a 21-gun salute and a trumpet-and-trombone choir. Blockbuster’s plastered all over it, and rightly so. Timed-ticket sales for its one-stop run are moving right along. But the marvelous show you actually see, honoring the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, is, tonally, some other thing: quieter, slower, better. It’s a succession of major painterly melodies set among ink-drawn pre-echoes and reverbs. It’s a confluence of presences and absences — art that’s there and some that’s not — both equally potent. [ More ]

FORBES MAGAZINE By Scott Mendelson Poster for new biopic movie, "Harriet" Opening in wide release on Thursday night courtesy of Focus Features, Harriet almost acts as a dare to those who have (correctly) spent the last decade or two wondering why Hollywood had yet to make a biopic featuring Harriet Tubman. And now, at last, we’ve got a Harriet Tubman movie, directed by the much-respected Kasi Lemmons and co-written by Lemons and Gregory Allen Howard. And, sure enough, in this Netflix/VOD world, the movie we all claimed to want will be lucky to open with $10 million this weekend. That would be unfortunate since the movie is actually pretty good. It’s a Harriet Tubman biopic, plain and simple, and as such does exactly what it promises. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton "Shaper of Beauty (Al-Musawwir)" by Andrew Kosorok (2011); Etched, painted, fired glass sewn with hemp, with pomegranate; 11 1/4″h x 14″w x 14″d I spent a few days this week with honorary Mullah Andrew Kosorok , a master glass sculptor and stain-glass creator. Following 9/11, he began creating flat glass sculptures, like "Shaper of Beauty," to explore spiritual and cultural diversity/convergence, and questions of personal identity. Kosorok isn't a Muslim. He's a Latter-day Saint and lives in Provo, Utah, where he teaches. He is soft-spoken and builds bridges with his gentle magnetism. Andrew Kosorok was in town this week to award artist grants , and that makes his "Shaper of Beauty" my art of the week.

THE TOLEDO BLADE  By Roberta Gedert There are three pieces in the show that take up individual spaces in galleries 4, 5, and 9: Intersections, The Greys In Between and This Is Not a Refuge 2. Anila Agha wants people to feel included when they experience her large-scale sculptures at the Toledo Museum of Art . All three of the works in the exhibition Anila Quayyum Agha: Between Light and Shadow , which opens to the public Saturday, deal with connecting the lines between inclusion and exclusion when dealing with social, religious, and cultural barriers. “I think about how we can cross over those lines so we can create a stronger more peaceful way to communicate,” said Ms. Agha, during a visit to the Toledo museum this week. She said she wants her work to leave people feeling included; an invitation for “everybody and anybody, and nobody could be chased out.” [ More ]

PATRICK MCGRATH MUNIZ NEWS INTROSPECTION (detail) Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches. Available at Evoke Contemporary 2016, 2017 and 2018 marked a turning point at a personal level and the new work of Patrick McGrath Muniz is a reflection of that. In his upcoming exhibition titled FRANCIS CO., he'll be presenting his latest body of work focusing on reinterpretations of the message and figure of Saint Francis. Consumerism, colonialism, human fictions, important environmental issues, and personal narratives are all explored in these oil paintings on canvas and triptych panels. With nearly 30 works on display at the gallery, this is the largest solo show put together of his work so far and the first at Evoke Contemporary. You're all cordially invited! [ More ]

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE By M. Thomas Detail of Andy Warhol's "Raphael Madonna-$6.99" (1985); The Andy Warhol Museum; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 1998.1.358 The name Andy Warhol and the word religion rarely come up in the same conversation, but that’s about to change with the debut Sunday of the exhibition “Andy Warhol: Revelation” at the North Side museum that bears his name . An extensive look at the personal side of the celebrated Pop artist shows a man who remained under the influence of his Carpatho-Rusyn upbringing and Byzantine Catholic heritage throughout his life. The exhibition is essentially a retrospective of his spiritual expression, from a plaster statue of Jesus that he painted between ages 10 and 13 to his extensive “The Last Supper” series completed in 1986, the year before his death in February 1987. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Farah Nayeri “Painter Working, Reflection,” 1993, is considered to be Lucian Freud’s greatest self-portrait. It is part of the exhibition “Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits,” which will be at London’s Royal Academy of Arts starting Oct. 27. LONDON — In 1993, the British painter Lucian Freud , who had just turned 70, took on one of the boldest projects of his career: producing a full-length portrait of himself in his birthday suit. He stood naked and painted in the top-floor London studio where he had spent so many of his waking hours. “Painter Working, Reflection,” is now considered by critics and art historians to be his greatest self-portrait. The portrait is sure to be a highlight of “Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits,” which will be at London’s Royal Academy of Arts ( Oct. 27 through Jan. 26 ), before opening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on March 1 . [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS I will remain resolute., 2019 Acrylic and oil paint, charcoal, linen canvas, metal leaf, fabric, thread, metal buttons, Swarovski crystals on panel. 48 x 36 inches / 121.9 x 91.4 cm. All images courtesy of De Buck Gallery and the artist. De Buck Gallery is delighted to announce the representation of Stephen Towns , with an upcoming solo exhibition titled ‘ The Night Light Fell from the Sky .’ This will be Towns’ first solo exhibition with the gallery and his first solo exhibition in New York. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, October 26th. Stephen Towns is a painter and a fiber artist working primarily in oil, acrylic, and quilting, exploring how American history influences contemporary society. His paintings look at the African Diaspora and draw visual inspiration from Medieval altarpieces, impressionist paintings, and wax cloth prints. 

APOLLO MAGAZINE By Giovanni Aloi Installation view of ‘Damien Hirst: Mandalas’ at White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London, 2019. Photo: White Cube (Ollie Hammick); © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2019 Damien Hirst has recently unveiled a new series of his ‘butterfly-wing paintings’ and the internet is ablaze with debate. Butterflies, dead or alive, have appeared in the artist’s work since the late 1980s and he has produced very similar paintings to the ones now exhibited at White Cube in London since the mid-2000s. These works have always, to some degree, attracted criticism from vegan and animal rights groups, but the latest response – on Twitter, in letters to the Guardian and in a review by Times art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston – seems more widespread. But what strikes me as unprecedented about the recent criticism is its superficiality: the lack of acknowledgment that most artworks in our museums are smeared with countless animal deaths. [ More ]

ALETEIA By Daniel Esparza Detail of "Crucified Christ" (1632) by Diego Velázquez Diego Velásquez’s Crucified Christ might be one of his most famous religious paintings. In fact, the anatomical perfection of the figure of Christ itself follows the neo-Greek ideals of the Renaissance, which Velásquez might have seen with his own eyes in Guido Reni’s work while in Italy. However, art historians claim there might be yet another explanation for this anatomical perfection: Velásquez might have drawn inspiration from a psalm. Psalm 45.2 , which reads “thou art the most beautiful of the sons of men.” [ More ]

ALETIA In the Hebrew bible, a Nazirite is he who voluntarily makes a special vow of consecration to God. What this vow entails is explained in detail in chapter six of the Book of Numbers, verses 1 to 21: These vows imply a certain degree of self-imposed discipline, including that of not cutting one’s hair, as is clearly stipulated in the Book of Numbers. Samson (Judges 13:5) and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11) are both Nazirites. This might be one of the antecedents of a motif we commonly find in Christian art: penitents are always depicted with long, flowing, loose hair. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Farah Nayeri Fatima Maleki, at her home in London, with Anselm Kiefer’s 2009 painting “San Loreto.” LONDON -- For the last couple of decades, the Iranian-born Fatima Maleki and her husband, Eskandar, have been donors to museums such as the Tate, helped found new prizes and collected art, as well as hosting artists at Ms. Maleki’s famous dinners. At vast tables, guests fill their plates with foods redolent of Iran, like albaloo polo, a rice dish made with sour cherry, and pomegranate stew eaten over saffron rice. "At the beginning, we bought a lot of young artists. We opened our house and did dinners because we wanted to connect people. Someone I know said: “Why don’t you start by inviting young artists that nobody invites? Go to the East End of London, go to the studios, and connect them with collectors and galleries, because people invite collectors but don’t invite artists.” [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Bill Viola: Mirrors of the Unseen "Bill Viola: Mirrors of the Unseen" is now on view through January 5, 2020 at La Pedrera - Casa Milà in Barcelona, Spain. Regarded as a pioneer of video art, Bill Viola uses sophisticated audiovisual technologies with great mastery to explore and express his constant interest in what it means to be human and in the transitory nature of life. In his work, Viola addresses universal themes such as birth, death, pain, grief, redemption and the passing of time, clearing the way for the senses to channel feelings and to generate particular moods. The exhibition Bill Viola: Mirrors of the Unseen offers an extensive survey of the career of this artist, who has evolved in tandem with the advances in video technology over the last 40 years.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Voting now open through October 31, 2019 The  Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts  is pleased to announce the 2019 finalists for the  Alpha Omega Prize  - artist of the year. This year's five finalists are Indianapolis-based  Anila Quayyum Agha ;   London-based  Barnaby Barford ; New Mexico's  Patrick McGrath ;   and New York-based artists  Saya Woolfalk   and  Naudline Pierre . The  Alpha Omega Prize  was created in 2008 as an annual recognition of the impact of artists on America's religious dialogue. Voting is now open through October 31, and the Artist of Year honoree will be announced on November 1.  [ Click here, to vote ]

APOLLO MAGAZINE The Crowning with Thorns (detail; c. 1603), Caravaggio. Photo: © KHM-Museumsverband Caravaggio and Bernini defined the dramatic realism of the early Roman baroque in their respective mediums of painting and sculpture. This display is the first to focus on the two artists together; it also looks at their influence on contemporaries such as Guido Reni and Artemisia Gentileschi. Find out more from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s websit e. ‘You were made for Rome,’ Pope Urban VIII once said to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, ‘and Rome for you.’ Born in Naples in 1598, he moved with his family to the Eternal City in 1606, by which time Caravaggio’s extravagant dramatic realism had made him the most famous artist in the city. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Megan O’Grady Nick Cave, photographed in his Chicago studio on June 6, 2019 The inauguration of Nick Cave’s Facility, a new multidisciplinary art space on Chicago’s Northwest Side, has the feeling of a family affair. Outside, stretching across the windows along Milwaukee Avenue, is a 70-foot-long mosaic made of 7,000 circular name tags with a mix of red and white backgrounds, each of them personalized by local schoolchildren and community members. They spell out the message “Love Thy Neighbor.” The simple declaration of togetherness and shared purpose is a mission statement for the space, a creative incubator as well as Cave’s home and studio, which he shares with his partner, Bob Faust, and his older brother Jack. [ More ]

TEHRAN TIMES Amongst the highlights are a large holy Qur’an leaf in gold Kufic script on blue vellum, Near East, North Africa or Southern Spain, 9th-10th century AD (est. £400,000-600,000) TEHRAN – Sotheby's, a British-founded American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City, has announced highlights of arts from the Islamic world, which will go under hammer in its upcoming auction. The objects include masterpieces of calligraphy, painting, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry and furniture, spanning several continents and centuries – with the earliest pieces stretching back to the seventh century, Benedict Carter, Sotheby’s Islamic art specialist and head of sale has said, Art Daily reported on Wednesday. “Viewed together, it [the selection of objects] is an undeniable testament to the sophisticated, inventive and diverse output of the Islamic world. Alongside our biannual sale, we are also thrilled to be presenting a stand-alone single-owner auction of just under ...

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE Artist Mahendra Shah paints a 10-headed Raven figure for the annual Dussehra celebration PITTSBURGH---Dussehra, a joyous festival in the Hindu calendar, will be celebrated Sunday with the burning of a 15-foot-tall effigy of the demon king Ravan at the Hindu Jain Temple in Monroeville. The pyrotechnical destruction of the fireworks-strapped figure represents the triumph of good over evil. “All of the Hindu community comes here to celebrate,” said temple president Hitesh Mehta. The public also is invited to share in the experience, which will include Indian food. Those planning to do so should make a reservation at 724-325-2054 or hindujaintemple.org. [ More ]

THE TOLEDO BLADE By Roberta Gedert The Greys in Between, 2018, laser-cut steel, light bulb, powder coated, motorized movement, 10 x 5 feet octahedron and 5 x 5 feet tetrahedron. Anila Quayyum Agha ’s large-scale sculptural installations are best seen through the eyes of anonymity. In her upcoming local exhibition Anila Quayyum Agha: Between Light and Shadow , the Pakistan-born American immigrant uses life experiences, coupled with light and shadow within space to both connect and recognize social, religious, and cultural barriers. The show opens Saturday in three gallery rooms at the Toledo Museum of Art . “The artwork turns the space that it is existing in into the artwork so anyone who walks through it becomes part of the artwork, so everyone is precious. And because of the shadows falling on people’s faces, they become slightly anonymous,” said the studio artist, also an associate professor at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Siddhartha Mitter “Alia Ali” from “Vogue: the Arab Issue” (2014). “There are two kinds of artist,” Mr. Hajjaj said in the shop’s back area, with its banquettes made of Moroccan Coca-Cola crates topped with flower-print cushions. “There’s the artist that needs space, to be on their own to work, and there’s somebody like myself.” He scanned the scene. “There’s always an ambience.” This fall, Mr. Hajjaj has brought the vibes to Paris, where a retrospective of his work is taking over the entire Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the photography museum. The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, attended the opening, which included Moroccan Gnawa musicians performing with Yasiin Bey, the rapper once known as Mos Def. Hassan Hajjaj Through Nov. 17 at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris; mep-fr.org . [ More ]

THE JEWISH STANDARD By Joanna Palmer Abraham pushes Isaac; it’s not clear if it’s before or after the abortive sacrifice, Adi Nes says. It’s based on both Duane Hanson’s 1969 sculpture “Supermarket Shopper” and Caravaggio’s “The Sacrifice of Abraham.” We don’t usually think of photographs as being like onions. Often, we’re wrong. The more you stare at a photo, the more you notice details, the more you wonder at choices, the more you read messages, the more you marvel at the beauty or the insight or the shock to your assumptions that’s in it, quite purposefully. Adi Nes , an Israeli photographer who will give the Buchman visual arts lecture at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck on Wednesday, shoots what is called staged photography to illustrate a range of themes. “My art deals with issues of identity, of masculinity, and of being Israeli,” he said. I am gay, so I deal with homoeroticism and gay identity. I am an artist and a Jew, so I deal with art and Judaism." [ More ]...

NYTIMES MAGAZINE By Hanya Yanagihara In our 2019 Greats issue, out Oct. 20, T celebrates four talents who, in mastering their crafts, have changed their fields — and the culture at large: architect Shigeru Ban; artist Nick Cave ; actress Rachel Weisz; and fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquière. They have in common an essential and fierce desire to communicate, whether through beauty or provocation, or both. Of all the questions we ask artists, “Where did you get your inspiration?” is both the most inevitable and the most impossible. Answering that question can be a frustrating experience. Our annual Greats issue is the apotheosis of what this magazine tries to be every issue: a conversation between artists of different mediums, a place where a fashion designer can find inspiration from a playwright, and a visual artist from an architect. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By Jason Farago The haunted polychrome “Bust of Christ” (1470-1483) displayed Verrocchio’s ability to imbue religious icons with psychological sensitivity.CreditYale University Art Gallery WASHINGTON — Probably, on a long car ride or at a lagging dinner party, you have been asked that trivial query: If you could have been born at any time and place, where and when would you choose? If you’re an artist, then at least as a practical matter you ought to consider reincarnating in Florence in the late 15th century. You could spend your whole career painting saints, carving statesmen and designing palaces, perhaps splitting the work with your colleagues. Leonardo and those other artists all worked in the same studio in Medici Florence, the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio (circa 1435-1488). Like most of the top artists during the Renaissance’s greatest building boom, Verrocchio was a man of all trades, chiseling marble and casting bronze, painting altarpieces ...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By XXX Vivek Vilasini’s “Vernacular Chants II.” In October 1939, about a decade before he was assassinated, Mohandas K. Gandhi issued a warning to his admirers. “These are days of dissension and discord, I should feel deeply humiliated if my name became in any way an occasion for accentuating them. Avoidance of such opportunities is a real service to the country and to me.” Yet of the many things that India’s independence leader achieved, curbing the proliferation of his likeness wasn’t one of them. Two new shows at Aicon Contemporary in the East Village not only coincide with Gandhi’s 150th birthday this month, but also provide insights into how Indian artists are trying to poke fun at his ubiquity and reflect upon the country of his birth. [ More ]

APOLLO MAGAZINE Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (c. 1585), El Greco. Photo: © The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore The first monographic survey of Doménikos Theotokópolous – better known as El Greco – to take place in France, this exhibition progresses from the early Byzantine-influenced paintings the artist completed in Crete to the visionary religious paintings he completed during his four decades in Spain, and considers how he absorbed Venetian and Florentine influences from Titian, Tintoretto and Michelangelo to create a highly individual style that ushered in the Spanish Golden Age. Find out more from the Grand Palais’s website . [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Titus Kaphar, “Ascension” (2016) oil on canvas with brass nails, 108 × 84 × 1 ½ in. Earlier this week, we RSVP'd for an artist talk by  Titus Kaphar   on November 7  at the University of Indianapolis. He is best known for appropriating images from Early American Art to "white-out" the history of white supremacy. His Ascension painting is now on view through November 3 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in " Fragments of a Crucifixion ." Ascension depicts a basketball player's leap into the air before a crowd of fans. His presence in both Chicago and Indianapolis makes  Titus Kaphar  our artist of the week.

SLASH FILM By Abby Olcese Ask any progressive Christian who their favorite filmmaker is, and more often than not, you’re likely to hear Terrence Malick’s name invoked in reverent tones. Of course, plenty of folks who rarely (or never) set foot in a church recognize Malick as a significant artist. However, to Christians who care a great deal about the nexus of faith and art, it’s almost impossible to have a conversation about movies without discussing Malick first. Malick’s latest, A Hidden Life, is his most directly faith-oriented film to date. It’s the true story of Franz Jägerstätter (played by August Diehl), an Austrian farmer executed by the Nazis for refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler when called up to join the army.  [ More ]

THE HINDU  By Susanna Myrtle Lazarus An installation by Shivan & Narresh at Chivas Studio in Bengaluru An evening of art, design, fashion and whiskey await the city today, as Chivas Studio comes to Chennai with their flagship event, The Blend. This immersive experience, that’s taking place at Park Hyatt, has been curated by designer duo Shivan Bhatia and Narresh Kukreja. Guests can indulge at four unique zones, featuring bars, cocktails, and performances that bring alive the prominent notes of Chivas. The designers talk to Weekend about what to expect at the event and future plans. As a luxury holiday brand, travel and art lie at the heart of all our inspirations. [ More ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER  AA Bronson in front of "Anna and Mark, February 3, 2001, 2002", his portrait of his husband with their premature daughter when she was 10 days old. AA wears a hand-embroidered shirt by MJKVL. Spirituality is on-trend. Tarot, the occult, astrology, meditation apps, crystals—as political turmoil surrounds us, interest in “new age spiritualism” is booming. And last week, the esoteric is in the ascendant at Frieze and in numerous exhibitions around London. The retreat from religion, particularly among the left-wing art world, is a driving factor behind this rise in spirituality. “Organised Christianity has proven itself largely morally bankrupt,” says the artist AA Bronson, who first became interested in shamanism and alternative belief systems at the age of seven. A work by Bronson’s collective General Idea is on show at Frieze London with Maureen Paley. [ More ]

ALIBI By Clarke Condé Send Her Back by Raymond Sandoval at the South Broadway Cultural Center. If you want to get your point across and stir up controversy, placing the baby Jesus in a cage and the Virgin Mary in handcuffs is a great way to start. As part of the exhibit Cuatro Corazones One Spirit currently on display at the South Broadway Cultural Center, Jemez Springs’ own Raymond Sandoval has hit on an exquisite formula for making a statement about America’s current obsession with immigration and deportation. The power of this work stems from its accessibility. For nearly all that would see it here in New Mexico, the message should be clear, a mark rarely strived for, and even less often achieved in much of modern art. [ More ]

NORTH JERSEY RECORD By Jim Beckerman Portable Shrine with the Wisdom King of Passion Painted on the doors and back wall, from right to left: Monk Kūkai, Eleven-headed Kannon, Dainichi, Fudō, and Bishamonten, Guardian of the North Edo Period (1615–1868) Shingon religious order Polychrome wood, gold and metal Zen comes to us from Japan. But its influence extends as far as outer space. That is if you count the Jedi master Yoda, who taught young Luke Skywalker such Zen-flavored maxims as: "Do or do not. There is no 'try.'" "Star Wars" is just one example of how Zen Buddhism — unique among Eastern religions — has made the leap into Western pop culture. It's become a kind of shorthand for peace, tranquility, mystic wisdom. I think Zen is a very popular word nowadays, which has come to mean a lot of things and actually doesn't even refer to the actual religion anymore," says Midori Oka, guest curator of the new art exhibit "Beyond Zen: J...

KUNDSTADT'S FALL NEWS 2019 Carol Kunstadt's "Sacred poem LXXIX" The exhibition is an exploration of both the diversity and ubiquity of faith in America and the complex ways in which religion intersects with American culture. Juror, Curator Nzeka Pfeifer has selected Kunstadt's Sacred Poem LXXIX. Hera Gallery founded in 1974 is the 5th oldest women founded gallery space in the US. Hera Gallery: "In God We Trust: Reflections on Religion in America" (October 12 - November 16, 2019); Opening Reception October 12, 6 - 8 pm; 10 High Street, Wakefield, RI; heragallery.org.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "The Tapestry of Light" (Detail 1) by Irene Barberis “I stood in front of the Angers Tapestry. … its scale, complexity, and poetry were overwhelming. At that moment I imagined a new work of art, one that would be radiant and glowing.” These are the words of contemporary artist Dr. Irene Barberis describing why she embarked on a 17-year journey to construct a work of art interpreting the Apocalypse for this generation. Inspired by the importance of light in biblical symbolism, Barberis embedded light deep into her design. Focusing on John’s Apocalypse, Barberis evaluated its text and imagery through a diversity of artistic methods. The resulting masterpiece, The Tapestry of Light  at D.C.'s Museum of the Bible , measures more than 118 feet long and is woven in three stunning layers that are each revealed under different lights.

HYPERALLERGIC By Sarah Rose Sharp Cimabue, private collection, The Mocking of Christ, ornamental border on a gold ground. Image courtesy of Eric Turquin and Actéon. Kids may say the darndest things, but you really have to give it to old people for sometimes eccentrically hoarding the darndest Medieval masterwork paintings. That’s the case this week, as a discovery made in June by Philomène Wolf, auctioneer for Actéon, a small auction house from the French town of Senlis, is a small-scale work of devotion among the authenticated works by the Florentine painter Cenni di Pepo, also known as Cimabue — hailed as the first truly great creator of Tuscan painting and active in the years 1272 to 1302. Wolf came across the unsigned 10×8 inch tempera-on-panel painting hanging above a hot plate in the home of an elderly French woman in Compiegne, who was selling her home.[ More ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Emily Sun Zarina, single woodcut from “Home is a Foreign Place” (1999), portfolio of 36 woodcut chine collé with Urdu text print on paper and mounted on paper, 8 x 6 inches; sheet: 16 x 13 inches The 36 woodcut prints in Zarina’s portfolio, “Home is A Foreign Place” (1999), strike me at the base of my throat. Abstracted images mutate and bear different Urdu and English words, beginning with “Home,” a floorplan of the artist’s childhood house in Aligarh, India. A dark barrier, “Wall,” hollows out into a circle, “Sky.” “Dust,” an earthen black block, settles beside “Language,” a rest, the musical symbol for silence. Zarina doesn’t illustrate words so much as unravel them, revealing the buried places from which we speak. Zarina’s lexicon captures how contemporary meanings of home multiply through loss, becoming more challenging, yet necessary, to articulate. Her prints greet visitors to the Met Breuer exhibition Home is a Foreign Place , which remaps Western nar...

BARNABY BARFORD NEWS Saturday National Club Auction 3 Oct, Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street I hope you are well. I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know about a few things that are coming up. First,  I was honoured to have been a small part of  'Eastside Story',  an amazing theatre project earlier in the year for which I designed and built the set. Second,  I have donated a painting to an auction (details below) in support of  the  National Saturday Club . Also below are some images about the  Tree in Chicago ! If you'd like more regular updates and to see work in progress, please do follow me on  Instagram ,  Facebook , and  Twitter .  [ More ]

LOS ANGELES TIMES By Leah Ollman “First Bite” by Patty Wickman, 2018-19, on view at Lora Schlesinger Gallery. Oil on linen, 84 inches by 104 inches. (From Patty Wickman and Lora Schlesinger Gallery) P atty Wickman’s astonishing work at Lora Schlesinger Gallery in Santa Monica calls to mind William Blake’s oft-quoted invitation to see a world in a grain of sand. In Wickman’s painting “First Bite,” one of Western culture’s essential narrative threads announces itself via a simple backyard snapshot. The epic resides in the everyday. This is Eden; this is home. The painting shows a little boy standing on a garden paver, one hand holding a just-bitten apple, the other reaching across his body as if to cover his nakedness. One bite of the fruit and self-consciousness begins to supplant innocence. Wickman, based in L.A., loads but never overloads her sense impressions with symbolism. [ More ]

THE MIDLAND PRESS Rembrandt van Rijn, Return of the Prodigal Son (detail), 1636. Etching. Inspiring Generosity: Stories of Faith and Grace in Art explores examples of compassion, giving, and sacrifice in subjects from the Western religious tradition. Featuring forty artworks from the Thrivent Collection of Religious Art, the book reflects on the theme of generosity expressed both through scripture and in visual art. In addition to illustrating familiar parables like The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan, the images also delve into more complex instances of generosity, as in the accounts of Esther and Abraham, and the sacrificial generosity of Christ’s Passion. The history and artistic background are given for each artwork, followed by a theological perspective and modern devotional insight. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton “Virgin and Child With Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist” by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) has been acquired by the Getty Museum. (The Getty) Agnolo Bronzino  (1503-1572) was a major Italian Mannerist in the middle of the 16th century, who mentored under Jacopo Pontormo. He is best known for his Medici portraits with arrogant expressions, while his religious works have more complex compositions and contorted body positions. Most of his religious paintings lack Pontormo's passion, but the Getty Museum's  new acquisition is an exception. "Virgin and Child With Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist" makes Agnolo Bronzino, our artist of the week .

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Audrey Hoffer Tony Gyepi-Garbrah and Desirée Venn Frederic at their residence in Washington. C redit Ting Shen for The New York Times WASHINGTON — Desirée Venn Frederic and Tony Gyepi-Garbrah live in a light-filled apartment in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast Washington that is small in size but grand in scope. The charcoal walls, stretching up to 15-foot ceilings, hold dozens of paintings, prints, photographs, 100-year-old textiles, collages, drawings, pastels, ceramics, and antiques, conferring a museumlike aura on the home. “One of the reasons I took an interest in Tony was because he understood legacy-building with art,” she said. She and Mr. Gyepi-Garbrah, 39, plan to marry later this year. [ More ]

LOS ANGELES TIMES By Jessica Gelt “Virgin and Child With Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist” by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) has been acquired by the Getty Museum. (The Getty) The Getty said Thursday that it had acquired Italian masterpieces — a religious painting by Renaissance master Agnolo Bronzino and a pair of Gothic marble sculptures by Giovanni di Balduccio — that rank among the “greatest works” in the museum’s collection. The painting, “Virgin and Child With Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist” (1540-1545), and the sculptures known as “The Annunciation” (1333-34) are in extraordinarily good condition and were purchased from an unnamed private collector in a rare offering of such historically important, valuable works, said Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts. [ More ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Gabrielle Welsh Titus Kaphar, “Ascension” (2016) oil on canvas with brass nails, 108 × 84 × 1 ½ in. CHICAGO — He suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. He rose again from the dead… (paraphrased from Apostle’s Creed). Even as each successive generation is raised without firm religious groundings, images of Christ still make their way into contemporary art and media as artists cite the Biblical roots of the so-called Western canon. Addressing often racialized violence, collective trauma, and ranging notions of faith — whether they be religious or spiritual — comprise the basis for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s small yet mighty exhibition, Fragments of a Crucifixion. [ More ]