RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK - Our Favorites of 2017

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

Ernest and Vernieda at the ArkEncounter in Williamstown, Kentucky on August 7, 2017

Of our best museum visits this past year, the National Museum of African American History & Culture inspired happiness; the Metropolitan Museum of Art renewed our creative passion, and a visit to Kentucky’s ArkEncounter satisfied a curiosity. As we look ahead into 2018, we’ve marked our calendars to see Makoto Fujimura’s "Charis-Kairos (The Tears of Christ)" at the Museum of the Bible, in Washington, DC; and Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” at the New-York Historical Society. However, our biggest wish for 2018 is to be inspired by more artists with religious imaginations, like new favorites of 2017 - Jeremie Riggleman, Renee Cox, and 2017 Alpha Omega Prize awardee Kelvin Burzon. Have an inspired New Year!

Controversial nude self-portraits inspired by Hindu religious art at Columbia Museum of Art

THE STATE
By Lezlie Patterson

“The Ajak Web Cycle” by Renee Cox, 2016. Mixed media; 46 inches by 46 inches by 5 inches. Columbia Museum of Art courtesy of the artist

COLUMBIA, SC---“Soul Culture” is not your grandmother’s art exhibit. The exhibition of Renee Cox’s work – considered controversial by some, boundary-breaking by others – open[ed] Friday, Dec. 15, at the Columbia Museum of Art. A guided tour will be 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17. The artwork in the exhibition deconstructs issues of race and gender using the body as central image to promote positivity and empowerment. Cox transforms her photographic portraits into hypnotic video and mandala-like reliefs influenced by Hindu and Buddhist religious art, the visual escapism of 1960s psychedelia, and the use of fractals in African culture. [More]

Renée Cox's "Sacred Geometry" Courtesy of Levi Gikandi via YouTube

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS

By TAHLIB

This video of "Sacred Geometry" was uploaded onto YouTube on June 28 (143 views) by Levi Gikandi, born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya. He is a double-major enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania as a Fine Arts and African Studies. I found the video on the homepage for photographer and creator of the images, Ms. Renée Cox. My caution is that there is a comment on the YouTube page that reads, "This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing," but I'm not even sure what that means, and since it's great, I am sharing it!

Monday's "Mamadonna & Child" is by Renée Cox

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

"Yo Mamadonna and Child" (1994) by Renée Cox

Today's Madonna & Child is "Yo Mamadonna and Child" in wood detail by Renée Cox (b. 1960), a Jamaican-born photographer, activist and curator. Another of Cox's photographs "Yo Mama's Pieta" was this week's RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK honoring the family of recently slain Michael Brown. [Artist Bio]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

The new film, “Through a Lens Darkly” on the history of black photographers features the work of Renée Cox (b. 1960), a Jamaican-born photographer, activist and curator. In her 1996 photograph "Yo Mama's Pieta" (above), which is highlighted in the film, Cox draws a controversial connection between the biblical crucifixion and American racism. The timing for the film's release coincided with this week's emotional funeral in Missouri for an unarmed black male killed by a white police officer. In honor of the family of Michael Brown, "Yo Mama's Pieta" by Renée Cox is my NEWS OF WEEK.