AVAM's new exhibit reaffirms its place as B'more's finest
There are several other pieces featured in The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy that are particularly of note. David Anson Russo, an artist, author and Hollywood creator/executive producer, developed several contributions to the exhibit, including a giant yellow and black maze painted on a column near the entrance to the exhibit's second half. The column is peppered with pictures of eyes and phrases like "Creativity!" and "Love widely not wisely all mankind is dear." The mural was painted directly onto the column between the hours of 12 p.m. and 8 a.m. on the day of the exhibit's opening and intuitively meshes the magic of the imagination with the complicated statistical structures of labyrinths and mazes. More of Russo's work hangs on one of the walls near the giant column, including two extremely intricate and impossible mazes drawn in pencil, the most interesting of which is titled "8 Level Rotating Stair Maze Sketch." Russo's mazes recall the works of other mathematically inspired graphic artists like M.C. Escher and István Orosz.
Another memorable display was created by 112-year-old visionary artist Frank Calloway, a diagnosed schizophrenic who is known for channeling his hallucinations into unique, colorful, childlike pieces. The particular mural featured in the AVAM exhibit shows a series of patterns manifested into colored-crayon drawings of trains, horses, houses and cars, each pattern replete with its own mathematical rhythm and property. The panels sprawl over an entire circular wall and seem as though they were scribbled in giant proportions by an inventive eight-year-old. Calloway himself attended the exhibit's opening in early October and explained how he used a combination of art and multiplicative mathematical properties as therapeutic means of dealing with his disease, from which he has been suffering since 1952.
Also prominently featured in The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy is work done by psychedelic spiritual artist Alex Grey, most notably the mystical masterpiece painting entitled "Holy Fire." The concepts of science and philosophy illustrated in this fiery piece are perhaps more hidden and abstract than they are in some of the exhibit's other works, but the intention and meaning is certainly still there under close inspection. The painting shows an outline of a winged human body, which presumably represents the disembodied soul, transposed over a collection of distorted body parts and organs disparately displayed amid a shock of orange and yellow background paint. "Holy Fire" was created with the intent of putting death in visual form; the brutal, scientific breakdown of human organs and physical manifestation is overcome by the good of the philosophical spirit.
There are some downsides to The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy: As is the case with most postmodern and post-art art, some of the displays featured in the exhibit are so abstract and intangible that it is difficult to distinguish whether they are art or simply an artist's attempt at pretension. Stephen Pratt's painted ant colony, for example, seems like a promising concept but falls short of its task of showing how scientific observation and color blends together. Regardless, the exhibit is both fascinating and beautiful, providing the viewer with an education that is unlike anything one could have in any classroom. Curator Rebecca Hoffberger has maintained that the exhibit was intended to break the age-old stigma that separates science from art; there is absolutely no doubt that it does just that.
The American Visionary Art Museum is located at 800 Key Highway in Federal Hill. Student admission is $8. See http://www.avam.org for more information.
Another memorable display was created by 112-year-old visionary artist Frank Calloway, a diagnosed schizophrenic who is known for channeling his hallucinations into unique, colorful, childlike pieces. The particular mural featured in the AVAM exhibit shows a series of patterns manifested into colored-crayon drawings of trains, horses, houses and cars, each pattern replete with its own mathematical rhythm and property. The panels sprawl over an entire circular wall and seem as though they were scribbled in giant proportions by an inventive eight-year-old. Calloway himself attended the exhibit's opening in early October and explained how he used a combination of art and multiplicative mathematical properties as therapeutic means of dealing with his disease, from which he has been suffering since 1952.
Also prominently featured in The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy is work done by psychedelic spiritual artist Alex Grey, most notably the mystical masterpiece painting entitled "Holy Fire." The concepts of science and philosophy illustrated in this fiery piece are perhaps more hidden and abstract than they are in some of the exhibit's other works, but the intention and meaning is certainly still there under close inspection. The painting shows an outline of a winged human body, which presumably represents the disembodied soul, transposed over a collection of distorted body parts and organs disparately displayed amid a shock of orange and yellow background paint. "Holy Fire" was created with the intent of putting death in visual form; the brutal, scientific breakdown of human organs and physical manifestation is overcome by the good of the philosophical spirit.
There are some downsides to The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy: As is the case with most postmodern and post-art art, some of the displays featured in the exhibit are so abstract and intangible that it is difficult to distinguish whether they are art or simply an artist's attempt at pretension. Stephen Pratt's painted ant colony, for example, seems like a promising concept but falls short of its task of showing how scientific observation and color blends together. Regardless, the exhibit is both fascinating and beautiful, providing the viewer with an education that is unlike anything one could have in any classroom. Curator Rebecca Hoffberger has maintained that the exhibit was intended to break the age-old stigma that separates science from art; there is absolutely no doubt that it does just that.
The American Visionary Art Museum is located at 800 Key Highway in Federal Hill. Student admission is $8. See http://www.avam.org for more information.
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