Unique AVAM exhibit displays predictable message
Another large entry, "The Captive," by Wilfred Regon Martin, is distinguished more by a haunting directness than by attentive detail. As with several other works in All Faiths Beautiful, the religious inclinations behind this hulking gold-painted warrior are less likely to grab attention than its unexpected presentation and material.
The same cannot be said of Christina Varga's "Mohammed-Jesus-Buddha" triptych panels - another exhibition centerpiece - which uses serene images that more or less distill the cross-theological and cross-traditional aspirations of the show as a whole.
Some of the other graphic works are elusive, almost mystical in comparison. It isn't easy to see how renderings such as the cosmic, vivid and overwrought "Praying" by Alex Gray fit into the Museum's essentially folk art aesthetic.
But canvases such as those of Edith Valentine Tenebrink - whose art, motivated in part by the prophet Obadiah, was once discovered at a flea market - certainly do. Her paintings, along with the smaller pictures that line the passages between the main exhibition rooms, are the perfect complement to overpowering selections such as "The Captive."
Artist and PostSecret founder Frank Warren's submission of anonymous postcards appears to have been conceived in the same paradoxical spirit of simultaneous mystery and intimacy that informs Tenebrink's pieces.
In fact, there are texts in every corner of All Faiths Beautiful - including advertisements for a collection of poems by 13th century mystic Jellaludin Rumi, newly illustrated by exhibition contributor Michael Green.
The show is populated by works that either contain incredibly simple messages or, at the other extreme, are idiosyncratic enough to defy easy explanation.
Despite this, visitors will find the gallery's walls covered with quotations from several of history's most profound religious leaders, philosophers and theorists.
Perhaps such gestures towards religious awareness strike a forlorn note in an age where even American high art consistently proves powerless to effect cultural and personal enlightenment. Then again, it is in toying with the boundaries between high art, low art, and stuff that barely classifies as art that the AVAM is at its imaginative best.
There may not be another exhibition on earth where you will find a fluorescent red skeleton in a baseball cap only footsteps away from a painting of Walt Whitman. Yet juxtapositions like this are nothing uncommon at All Faiths Beautiful, and alleviate the on-message uplift that would otherwise drag the show down.
All Faiths Beautiful will be on display at the American Visionary Art Museum until August 31, 2008. Call (410)-244-1900 or visit www.avam.org for more information.
The same cannot be said of Christina Varga's "Mohammed-Jesus-Buddha" triptych panels - another exhibition centerpiece - which uses serene images that more or less distill the cross-theological and cross-traditional aspirations of the show as a whole.
Some of the other graphic works are elusive, almost mystical in comparison. It isn't easy to see how renderings such as the cosmic, vivid and overwrought "Praying" by Alex Gray fit into the Museum's essentially folk art aesthetic.
But canvases such as those of Edith Valentine Tenebrink - whose art, motivated in part by the prophet Obadiah, was once discovered at a flea market - certainly do. Her paintings, along with the smaller pictures that line the passages between the main exhibition rooms, are the perfect complement to overpowering selections such as "The Captive."
Artist and PostSecret founder Frank Warren's submission of anonymous postcards appears to have been conceived in the same paradoxical spirit of simultaneous mystery and intimacy that informs Tenebrink's pieces.
In fact, there are texts in every corner of All Faiths Beautiful - including advertisements for a collection of poems by 13th century mystic Jellaludin Rumi, newly illustrated by exhibition contributor Michael Green.
The show is populated by works that either contain incredibly simple messages or, at the other extreme, are idiosyncratic enough to defy easy explanation.
Despite this, visitors will find the gallery's walls covered with quotations from several of history's most profound religious leaders, philosophers and theorists.
Perhaps such gestures towards religious awareness strike a forlorn note in an age where even American high art consistently proves powerless to effect cultural and personal enlightenment. Then again, it is in toying with the boundaries between high art, low art, and stuff that barely classifies as art that the AVAM is at its imaginative best.
There may not be another exhibition on earth where you will find a fluorescent red skeleton in a baseball cap only footsteps away from a painting of Walt Whitman. Yet juxtapositions like this are nothing uncommon at All Faiths Beautiful, and alleviate the on-message uplift that would otherwise drag the show down.
All Faiths Beautiful will be on display at the American Visionary Art Museum until August 31, 2008. Call (410)-244-1900 or visit www.avam.org for more information.
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