RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

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.

BYU Museum of Art Opens New Religious Exhibition

THE XXXX
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Henry Nelson O'Neil (1817-1880), Esther, 1850, oil on canvas, 41 1/4 x 30 3/4 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchased with funding provided by Thomas R. and Diane Stevenson Stone, 2017.

A new exhibition entitled “Rend the Heavens: Intersections of the Human and Divine” opened Friday at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. The exhibition, comprised of pieces from the MOA’s permanent collection, features eight new acquisitions on display for the first time. One of these new pieces is an 1850 oil painting, “Esther,” by Henry Nelson O’Neil. Researching a brand-new painting is a time-consuming process for museum curators, but in this case, it was a BYU student who conducted an in-depth study of the painting. [More]

Springville museum showcases spiritual side of Utah art

DAILY HERALD
By Sarah Harris

Eliza Croft's "Am I Not A Celestial Being?"

Of all the shows at the Springville Museum of Art, museum director Rita Wright’s favorite is the “Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah” juried exhibition that goes up each fall. “I get so excited every year,” Wright said. This show has a real depth and elegance and kind of a deeply authentic aspect to it as far as people representing their own spirituality.” This year’s “33rd Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah” exhibition, currently on display through Jan. 16, 2019, is unique for its diversity in the spiritual and religious traditions the show represents, according to Wright. [More]

BYU grad's Buddhist-inspired exhibit includes 12-foot-long kaleidoscope

DESERET NEWS
By Jeremy Hale

An image scattered by the kaleidoscope at the "We Revolve Ceaseless" exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.

PROVO — The “We Revolve Ceaseless” exhibit at Brigham Young University's Museum of Art is a reflective exhibit about the role of time and each person's place in the universe, all portrayed through a 12-foot-long kaleidoscope. Aundrea Frahm, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BYU, said her inspiration for the kaleidoscope came from a Buddhist text. “It talked about how we as humans revolve ceaselessly in life,” Frahm said. “It talked about seasons and how life has seasons. That was the basic concept of the work.” To execute the project, Frahm gathered a small team of sculpture, mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering students at BYU to craft and assemble the kaleidoscope and center it in the exhibit. [More]

Utah artists make spirituality visual — but not in the ways you'd expect

THE DESERET NEWS
By Sarah Harris

Frank McEntire's piece depicts Hindu god Shiva’s Nataraja manifestation, who represents the creation and destruction of the cosmos at BYU's Museum of Art.

SALT LAKE CITY — For most contemporary artists, spirituality and religious themes are not go-to subject matters. But, according to Ashlee Whitaker, curator of the BYU Museum of Art exhibition “The Interpretation Thereof: Contemporary LDS Art and Scripture,” this is just one way that the local art community breaks the mold. Contemporary religious art in Utah is similarly defined by its breadth of artists, vision, experimentation and personal meaning, according to Rita Wright, director of the Springville Museum of Art. At Springville, the curated invitational “Sacred Spaces: Archetypes and Symbols” highlights works exploring archetypes and symbols associated with sacred spaces, while the juried “32nd Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah” displays artists’ reflections of spiritual beliefs. [More]

Sacred Spaces invitation runs concurrently with 32nd Annual Religious Art exhibition

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Josh Winegar's Untitled from "Burst Apart/ Burst A Part", 2015

SPRINGVILLE, Utah -- Sacred Spaces: Archetypes and Symbols, a curated invitational, will run concurrently with the 32nd Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah exhibition. For this exhibition, SMA invited 35 contemporary Utah artists to exhibit works exploring some of the archetypes and symbols that are associated with Sacred Spaces. Nine archetypes will be represented in the exhibition including: Sacred Center, Temple, Cosmic Mountain, Ascension and Descension, Gardens, Underworld, Waters of Life, Tree of Life, and Cosmogram. "Sacred Spaces: Archetypes and Symbols", runs October 18, 2017 - January 10, 2018 at the Springville Art Museum, Springville, Utah.

Utah painter who found fame and controversy for religious and political art releases first Trump piece

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Brennan Smith

(Photo courtesy of McNaughton Fine Art Company) Provo painter Jon McNaughton's latest work, "You Are Not Forgotten"

SALT LAKE---Conservative Provo artist Jon McNaughton has turned his brushstrokes into brushes with fame at various points in his career — earning an endorsement from Fox News pundit Sean Hannity and satirical praise from Stephen Colbert. Now, the political and religious painter has created his first work depicting President Donald Trump. Titled ”You Are Not Forgotten,” McNaughton’s painting features Trump — his foot on a snake — standing over a young family nursing a small plant growing out of the cracked ground. ”I want a president that will crush the enemies of liberty, justice, and American prosperity,” the description reads. ”They may have the power to bruise his heal (sic), but he will have the power to crush their head!” [More]

Mormons create exhibition of Saudi contemporary art revealing unexpected common ground

ARTDAILY

Abdulnasser Gharem_The Path_2012_Silkscreen on paper_ 51x70.9in_129.6x180cm (1)

SALT LAKE CITY---“Cities of Conviction" examines the parallels between spiritual and urban cultures in Saudi Arabia and Utah; and especially the symbolism of creativity that connects cities of pilgrimage in both places," says exhibition curator, Jared Steffensen. "Since the 7th Century, the holy cities of Makkah and Medina have drawn millions of Muslim pilgrims every year to worship at the holiest sites in Islam, the Kaaba (House of God) in Makkah and the Tomb of the Prophet in Medina. The common histories of these cities extend well beyond issues of faith. Cities across both Utah and Saudi Arabia arose from the desert; have laws driven, in large part, by the predominant religion, and at first blush have comparatively conservative cultures. [More]

Defending the Faith: Does art always accurately reflect history?

DESERET NEWS
By Daniel Peterson

"The Risen Lord" (2005) by Arnold Friberg

A stroll through almost any large art museum will show that religious art often gets the details of biblical stories wrong. The cyclopean walls and bulging biceps of Arnold Friberg’s Book of Mormon illustrations aren’t “lies.” They’re designed to represent the larger than life qualities of the stories that the artist wished to emphasize. Search online, for example, for paintings of “the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.” Their actual route would have taken Joseph, Mary and Jesus either along the dry Mediterranean coast of Palestine or through the Negev Desert. But innumerable paintings take them through northern European forests or perhaps the Rhine River Valley, sometimes escorted by winged angels and little cherubs. The church, say these critics, is lying about its history. But artists aren’t historians. [More]

Imagine a scripture. Now visit BYU’s ‘The Interpretation Thereof.’ Imagine it again.

COURT MANN DAILY HERALD

"Descent from the Cross" by Brian Kershisnik

PROVO---On Thursday afternoon, Ashlee Whitaker, curator of religious art at Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art, looks up at “Breath of Life (From the Dust)” The large painting, by Utah artist J. Kirk Richards, hangs just inside the entryway to the museum’s newest main floor exhibit, “The Interpretation Thereof.” The world of contemporary LDS art, Whitaker said, differs from much of the contemporary art world as a whole — namely because these LDS artists overtly explore their own religiosity in their work. The museum’s new exhibit focuses on contemporary Mormon art, and each piece interprets a passage of scripture. These interpretations span diverse artistic mediums, with varying levels of abstraction. [More]

Greg Olsen's Mormon art is not only everywhere — it's everybody

DESERET NEWS
By Jerry Earl Johnston

Unveiling in 2015 of Greg Olsen's new painting "Treasures of Knowledge" that will be displayed in the family room of the Gordon B. Hinckley Visitors and Alumni Center. The painting was commissioned by Leo and Annette Beus.

How does artist Greg Olsen do it? He’s a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yet he’s able to place his artwork in the shops, catalogs — even the buildings — of other Christian faiths. He goes where few Mormon artists have gone before. He’s everywhere. While in Chicago, my wife and I visited the church where the legendary evangelist D.A. Moody delivered his fiery sermons. In the gift shop we found prints and postcards of Jesus, the art by Greg Olsen. On a trip to California, I stopped to visit a Coptic Christian monastery that was at the end of the longest, meanest dirt road in America. Among the pictures for sale there I found Greg Olsen’s artwork. Maybe he has a savvy agent. Or maybe he simply does what so many great Christian artists have done. [More]

Mormon artist James C. Christensen dead at 74

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Touching the hem of God, by James C. Christensen

UTAH---James C. Christensen, a painter renowned for religious- and fantasy-based imagery, and a former art professor at Brigham Young University, died Sunday in Orem from the effects of cancer. He was 74. Christensen was born Sept. 26, 1942, and was raised in Culver City, Calif. He served a two-year mission to Uruguay for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then attended the University of California at Los Angeles for a time before moving to Utah and graduating from BYU. He taught at the LDS Church-owned Provo school for 21 years, and had his work featured in shows throughout the West, as well as in publications such as Spectrum, American Illustration Annual and Japan's Outstanding American Illustrators. [link]

In BYU MOA’s ‘To Magnify the Lord’ exhibit, six centuries of art share the spotlight

THE DAILY HERALD
By Court Mann

"The Prodigal's Return" (1869) by Sir Edward John Poynter

UTAH---Employees at Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art didn’t want one of its new exhibits, “To Magnify the Lord,” to feel like the others. The exhibit, which features Christian art from six different centuries, is one of the museum’s most far-reaching religious showcases to date. It reaches deep into the museum’s archives, displaying pieces that the MOA has never showed before. For all the striking pieces “To Magnify the Lord” displays, it’s only a portion of the museum’s religious art collection. That collection started being built in earnest in 2001, and BYU is unique in that it celebrates and champions these works not just as beautiful pieces of art history, but as pieces of religious devotion. Other art museums don’t emphasize the latter to the same degree. [link]

Arts Hot Ticket: 31st annual 'Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah' showcases spiritual perspectives

XDAILY HERALD
By Derrick Clements

Steve Vistaunet's "Not Today" is featured in the 31st annual show

UTAH---Looking up in the pews during Sunday worship, or walking through a temple, synagogue or mosque, worshipers are frequently exposed to art that expresses a religious or spiritual point of view. Often, the religious art that gets the widest audience is intended to assist in theological instruction or proselytizing. But a different objective guides the art in the 31st annual “Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah” show at the Springville Museum of Art. Throughout the exhibit, religious conviction and testimony jumps out of the varied pieces, but spiritual questions are as present as answers. [link]

Why stained glass works in sacred and secular spaces

THE DAILY PROGRESS
By Kelsey Dallas

Pieces of art glass are assembled into panels for “The Roots of Knowledge,” a 200-foot-long stained glass installation for Utah Valley University, at Holdman Studios in Lehi on Nov. 4, 2016.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Stained glass windows are both permanent and ever-changing. They can't be easily moved from their frame or rearranged, but shifting sunbeams affect what each new admirer sees. "Stained glass brings light and color and story into a building at the same time," said Virginia Chieffo Raguin, an art history professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. "No other medium does that." The art form's unique characteristics have attracted artisans and architects for centuries, even as the demand fell for traditional houses of worship, where stained glass was first widely used, reported the Deseret News (http://bit.ly/2fVmmQA).[link]

Mormon artist’s shift from mythical creatures to religious art fulfills dream

THE DAILY UNIVERSE
By Kelsey Edwards

‘I Am a Child of God’ by Howard Lyon

UTAH---It’s important to have a dream, but it’s even more important to achieve it, according to award-winning religious artist Howard Lyon and his wife, Shari Lyon. Howard accepted the unexpected opportunity to work in the video game industry and became the artist of thousands of mythical creatures, elves and dragons. Eventually Shari said she felt another shift coming and Howard felt drawn toward religious art. Shari said switching from video games to religious art was a leap of faith for her and Howard and a “huge jump off the cliff,” but she knew it was what they were supposed to do. [link]

31st annual 'Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah' showcases spiritual perspectives

DAILY HERALD
By Derrick Clements

Eric Heywood's "Jesus"

UTAH---Looking up in the pews during Sunday worship, or walking through a temple, synagogue or mosque, worshippers are frequently exposed to art that expresses a religious or spiritual point of view. Often, the religious art that gets the widest audience is intended to assist in theological instruction or proselytizing. But a different objective guides the art in the 31st annual “Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah” show at the Springville Museum of Art. Throughout the exhibit, religious conviction and testimony jumps out of the varied pieces, but spiritual questions are as present as answers. Artists portraying aspects of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have covered everything from Book of Mormon stories to a reimagination of Joseph Smith presented through Tarot cards. [link]

Stained glass window from New York now on display at the BYU Museum of Art

DESERET NEWS
By Adam Droge

This stained glass portraying the New Testament story of Jesus Christ and and the woman at Jacob's well is part of the the "To Magnify the Lord" exhibit at BYU's Museum of Art in Provo.

PROVO, UT---A lit 9-foot-8-inch by 5-foot-10-inch stained glass window showing the New Testament story of Jesus Christ teaching the woman at the well is now at the end of the main hall of the Brigham Young University Museum of Art’s exhibit "To Magnify the Lord: Six Centuries of Art and Devotional." The window is nearly 100 years old and came from a church in New York, according to information from museum officials. The exhibit “To Magnify the Lord” includes about 75 pieces of art and continues to 2019. Admission to the BYU Museum of Art is free. For more information, visit the museum’s website at moa.byu.edu. [link]

J. Kirk Richards' Angel Messengers in New Art Show in Utah

STANDARD JOURNAL
By Don Sparhawk

"The Trumpet Shall Sound" J. Kirk Richards

UTAH---A new art show opening next week in Rexburg will feature paintings of angels and heavenly messengers from the Bible. J. Kirk Richards, of Woodland Hills, Utah, has been working on the show for the past year and is including many of his newest paintings. The show will open Sept. 16 and run through Oct. 13 in the Jacob Spori Art Gallery at Brigham Young University-Idaho. He describes his religious artwork as a “modern abstracted reinterpretation of classical themes.” He added, “I don’t think people should take my images as literal and the way it looked.” [link]

Korean Artist Says God Taught Him How to Paint

THE CREATOR'S PROJECT
By Taylor Lindsey

The Hand of God. Oil painting by Yongsung Kim. Image courtesy of Foundation Arts

UTAH---Traditional images of Jesus Christ tend to come off on the somber side. On the flipside, contemporary art leaps in a different direction when reimagining the Christ—it gets creative, political, and sometimes outright anti-orthodox.... But Yongsung Kim is trying for a different approach. Indeed, the Korean artist is taking on the steep challenge of changing how the world pictures the crucified religious leader. Each painting shows the religious figurehead reveling in light, or offering it (sometimes directly to the viewer). Recently, the artist flew to Utah for a Q&A as part of a collaboration with Foundation Arts. Over 150 people filled the gallery at the University Mall in Orem as Kim spoke about the creative process behind his paintings. [link]