Muskegon Museum of Art’s winter exhibits explore expressions of faith

REVUE
By Marla R. Miller

Joos van Cleve Flemish, ca. 1485-ca. 1540 "St. Jerome in Penitence" Oil on wood panel, circa 1516-18 Hackley Picture Fund Purchase 1940.47

MICHIGAN---The Muskegon Museum of Art's major winter exhibition, "Expressions of Faith: Religious Works from the Permanent Collection with Rare Manuscripts from the Van Kampen Collection," showcases some of the best religious artwork in the museum’s permanent collection, along with rare manuscripts, bibles and other artifacts on loan. This includes prints by Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt, paintings by Joos van Cleve and Lucas Cranach the Elder, carvings, sculptures and metalwork, Portuguese and Mexican retablos, and early manuscripts from Christian, Judaic, and Islamic texts. The goal of the show is not only to highlight religious themes and symbolism depicted in art, but also to explore the impact of artists on expanding religious faith. [link]

Trump’s Education Secretary helped found Michigan's ArtPrize

ARTNET NEWS

By Alyssa Buffenstein

Donald Trump announced [on] November 23, his pick for education secretary—Betsy DeVos, a member of “Western Michigan Royalty,” according to the New York Times, whose family has pumped millions into arts initiatives. But DeVos is also a heavily-criticized advocate for school choice, charter schools, and voucher programs. The DeVoses founded the Michigan ArtPrize, the “most-attended public art event on the planet.” The international art competition awards $500,000 in prizes to artists and more than $270,000 in grants to, among others, venues, curators, public projects, and, interestingly, voter registration ($8,000) and education days ($44,000). [link]

In Anthony Falbo's "Gethsemane," Jesus is Covered by Angels

THE JESUS QUESTION
By Victoria Emily Jones

Anthony Falbo (b. Michigan), Gethsemane (The Hour is Near), 2006. Oil on canvas.

Luke is the only one of the Gospel writers to mention that in response to Jesus’s pained pleas in Gethsemane, an angel came down to strengthen him. American artist Anthony Falbo renders this moment of heavenly condescension in his painting Gethsemane (The Hour is Near).  Falbo chose to depict three angels instead of just the one that Luke mentions. This multiplicity creates a stronger sense of protective presence: the more angels around him, the tighter the seal. I’ve never seen an angel portrayed as having such sensitivity toward, such commitment to, his charge. In response to Jesus’s prayers in Gethsemane, the Father does not remove the cup of suffering from him, as he asks, but he does give him the strength to drink it. [link]

Jewish Artist Has Eye On The ArtPrize

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
By Suzanne Chessler

Jeffrey Bussell’s sculpture Babi Yar

MICHIGAN---Jeffrey Bussell learned home repairs from his dad, an engineer, while growing up in Southfield. Although moving away from engineering and into law, Bussell maintained a set of tools to fix household problems at his own home in Farmington Hills. It wasn’t necessarily beauty that attracted him — artistically expressed ideas also caught his eye. Babi Yar has been accepted by this year’s ArtPrize, the artistic display and competition held through Oct. 9 in Grand Rapids. Bussell’s three-dimensional work, a large disintegrating Star of David made of people-shaped wooden pegs, memorializes the 1941 massacre of nearly 34,000 Jews in the Ukraine ravine known as Babi Yar. [link]

Alfonse Borysewicz’s Lonely Struggle Gives Catholic Art a Modern Face

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
By David Van Biema

The first version of “Triduum II,” a painting by Alfonse Borysewicz. Photo courtesy of Alfonse Borysewicz

NEW YORK---Whenever Alfonse Borysewicz addresses a fresh canvas, a daunting set of issues stares back at him. First, there is the fact that Borysewicz is painting from faith, when, for the most part, it doesn’t pay. Few galleries and museums are interested in explicit, non-ironic religious art. It can be hard to find a place to show, let alone to sell. Then there is his Roman Catholicism. No other Western religion has produced such a rich legacy of artistic inspiration and ideas; but none exerts the same kind of anxiety of influence, described by one journalist as “the insane, neutron-star gravitational power of Catholic artistic tradition.” (In October, Borysewicz’s will show at the Dadian Gallery at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.) [link]

Detroit Institute of Art Receives $5 Million, Renames Ancient Middle East Gallery

ARTFORUM

MICHIGAM---The Detroit Institute of Art announced Tuesday that its newly renovated Ancient Middle East gallery is also receiving a new name. The gallery will host the name of the late philanthropist William Davidson in recognition of a $5 million gift made by his foundation. The museum plans to reserve a section of the gallery for displaying early glass production in the region of the Middle East as a tribute to Davidson’s company, Guardian Industries, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of architectural and automotive glass. (Davidson also owned the Detroit Pistons and the Tampa Bay Lightning.)[link]

Former Art Teacher and Volunteer Leaves Detroit Museum $1.7 Million

THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY

"Angel of the Annunciation" (1490/1491) 

A former public-school art teacher and longtime museum volunteer left $1.7 million in her will to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Free Press reports. Elizabeth Verdow died last year at the age of 86. She spent her career as an art teacher in the Detroit public-school system while also volunteering for 19 years in the gift shop of the Detroit Institute of Arts. She never married or had children. The museum is the sole beneficiary of her estate. The terms of the bequest require the museum to spend $1.2 million to purchase contemporary art and sculpture, and the balance is to go to the museum's endowment. [link]

Is 'offensive' art unethical? Ethics and Religion Talk

THE GRAND RAPIDS
By Rabbi David Krishef

In the aftermath of another exciting Artprize competition, David asked: "There are well-known works of art that are offensive to people of various religions, like David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly, John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer, or Mousa's Paradise Built on the Bones of the Slaughtered, the sculpture that the city of Grand Rapids did not approve to be exhibited at ArtPrize. I think simply being an artist is not license for ignoring all ethical boundaries. An artist who wants his or her art to be taken seriously has an obligation to tread carefully when approaching sensitive matters. [link]

Altared skin: 'Voodoo Tattoo' opens in former Michigan church

MICHIGAN LIVE
By Cole Waterman

MICHIGAN---For 123 years, a hallowed building in Bay City's South End was home to the congregation of Memorial Presbyterian Church. Last month, a business inked with the name of a different religion moved in. VooDoo Tattoo now occupies the former church at 312 Lafayette Ave. While the structure is no longer a place of worship, it still has its share of religious iconography. Resplendent stained glass windows depicting biblical scenes, flickering votive candles, portraits of the Madonna holding the baby Jesus, and statues of saints are still rife throughout the structure. [link]

The powerful pull of Anila Agha's "Intersections"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS 
 

Our favorite image from this year's ArtPrize Seven was of this adorable kid walking (crawling)  underneath last year's winner, "Intersections" by Anila Quayyum Agha. He is "not" actually underneath the six foot steel cube, but the angle certainly gives that illusion, and "Intersection" is very much about perspective and illusion. Through December 6, 2015, "Intersections" will also be on view at the Rice University Art Gallery in Houston, Texas. For more details, visit ricegallery.org.

Artist Jim Shaw speaks about his personal collection of religious didactic materials

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Cover Image: Photo: Kevin Scanlon

NEW YORK--Michigan-born artist Jim Shaw to speak about his unique visionary approach that led to development of a new but fictitious religion, "Oism." It all takes place this Saturday at the New Museum as part of a solo exhibition “The End is Here.” For over thirty years, Shaw has developed a reputation for mining imagery of America's political, social, and spiritual histories. This exhibition encompasses three floors of the New Museum, and includes his personal collection of religious didactic materials, many of which were aquired on eBay. [Tickets]

A&O Curator's reveal their shortlists for ArtPrize Seven

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest O. Disney-Britton

Today, A&O releases its first "Shortlist" for the five artist categories of ArtPrize Seven with two works in each of the categories. ArtPrize is Grand Rapid's, Michigan's radically open $500,000 international art competition decided by public vote and expert jury, and A&O was there September 23-25. The five categories are 2D, 3D, Installation, Time-based, and venue. For the public vote, ArtPrize website's Leaderboard keeps ongoing track of the 25 works in each category generating the highest votes. On Monday night, ArtPrize also hosted its fourth annual Jurors’ Shortlist Event where they revealed the juror's twenty finalists in the running to win the Juried Grand Prize. Below is the A&O Shortlist with an *asterisk for overlaps with the Jurors' Shortlist.

Philip Campbell is one of the top artists are catching the public's attention in ArtPrize 2015

DETROIT NEWS
By John Serba

Philip Campbell, Indianapolis, Indiana – "Your Catfish Friend," Philip Campbell, DeVos Place, installation is one of the top 100

GRAND RAPIDS, MI---Nineteen of ArtPrize 2015's 100 public favorites are from the greater Grand Rapids area. Another 26 are from other Michigan cities, with 52 from elsewhere in the United States. Three artists are international. The entries are culled from Top 25 lists in four categories - two-dimensional, three-dimensional, installation and time-based - revealed by ArtPrize Tuesday morning, Sept. 29. The list isn't final, subject to change as more votes are tallied. [link]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB, Curator

"Your Catfish Friend" by Philip Campbell at ArtPrize

This first thousands of ArtPrize Seven visitors this week gave a big thumb's up for a monumental 26-panel, 22.5 by 11.5 foot catfish in Grand Rapids, MI. Installed at the convention center, it is carved from African mahogany and painted with high flow acrylic. The design infused with spiritual symbolism, is adapted from the same tattoos found on the artists own body. ArtPrize is now open, and that's why "Your Catfish Friend" (above) by Philip Campbell is our NEWS OF WEEK.

ArtPrize rejects sculpture with burned Bible,Torah, and Quran

11ALIVE | NBC
By Kaitlyn S Ross and Julie Wolfe, WXIA

Atlanta artist Nabil Mousa said he created "Paradise Built on the Bones of the Slaughtered" so people would question what people do in the name of religion.

GEORGIA---An Atlanta artist is frustrated after his sculpture about 9/11 was turned down from a national competition for being too controversial. It was a miscommunication between the city where the competition is held, and the curators who judge the competition. The piece was approved by the curators to be displayed at City Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan for ArtPrize, an annual competition. But when the city saw it, they thought it was far too controversial to be in city hall. It is a provocative piece called "Paradise Built on the Bones of the Slaughtered." [link]

Monumental Buddhist art helps sculpture park shatter attendance records

ARTDAILY

"Long Island Buddha" by Zhang Huan at Japanese Gardens, Summer 2015

MICHIGAN---Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, one of the nation’s most significant botanic and sculpture experiences, broke attendance records again in August, making it the best summer, and best three consecutive months, in the organization’s history. Meijer Gardens unveiled a monumental acquisition by Ai Weiwei, Iron Tree, and unveiled an authentic eight-acre Japanese Garden. [link]

A Christian conservative steps forward into the arts

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest O. Disney-Britton

Would you be surprised to learn that a Christian conservative from Michigan created the world's largest art competition? If so, you might also be surprised to learn that last year's winner of that competition was an Islamic cube created by an artist born in Pakistan. The event is called ArtPrize (Sept. 23-Oct. 11, 2015), and attracts over 23,000 visitors each day to Grand Rapids, Michigan including yours truly---Greg and Ernest.

ArtPrize winners: ‘Intersections” historic win not the end for Agha

WOODTV.COM

MICHIGAN—Although she went home with the largest amount of money ever awarded to one artist in a single ArtPrize competition, Anila Quayyum Agha is continuing her career in teaching. Shortly after taking down “Intersections” last October, the GRAM moved the piece to its third floor Wege Gallery, where it remained on display until late January. “Intersections” is expected to remain at the Dallas Museum of Art until Aug. 23. The public relations manager for ArtPrize tells 24 Hour News 8 that they will announce the next stop for “Intersections” by early September. [link]

The BBC decodes the symbols on Detroit's new Satan statue

BBC NEWS
By James Morgan

MICHIGAN---A controversial statue unveiled by the Satanic Temple at a secret ceremony in Detroit has attracted protests. But who is the goat-headed figure? And what do the elements of the statue symbolise? The bronze statue is nearly 9ft tall and depicts a winged hermaphrodite known as Baphomet, flanked by two smiling children. The name dates back to the Inquisition and torture of the Knights Templar about 1100 who, according to French chroniclers of the Crusades, confessed to worshipping a heathen idol called Baphometh. [link]

Satanists unveil their nine-foot tall sculpture in Detroit near the river

THE GUARDIAN
By Rueters

The statue of a winged Baphomet with a human body and a goat’s head is seated before statues of a boy and a girl. It is nine-feet tall and weighs one-ton.

MICHIGAN---A Satanic organisation unveiled a controversial bronze Baphomet sculpture in Detroit just before midnight on Saturday, after trying in vain to have it installed near a Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma. The Satanic Temple unveiled the one-ton statue at an industrial building near the Detroit River just before 11.30pm local time as supporters cheered: “Hail Satan.” Some of the hundreds in attendance rushed to pose for photos. [link]