» Science meets art: Norbert Voelkel paints the pandemic at Bareiss Gallery
Norbert Voelkel at the Bareiss Gallery
With the country still in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the mantra of the season has been, “Follow the science. Listen to scientists.” Rarely, if ever, has the science of COVID intersected with the visual arts, however. But on Friday (Dec. 18) from 5-7 p.m. the Bareiss Gallery will host the opening reception of “OUR Covid– Infection & Resurrection,” both installation art and a tutorial of immediate relevance.
Norbert Voelkel, the artist behind the exhibition, is also a practicing internist and venerated pulmonary medicine clinician/ scientist. His multifaceted talent and specialties come together in a somber display that nevertheless manages to educate and empower the viewer in the most meaningful way.
“It is named ‘OUR Covid’ because, while not everybody is infected, everybody is affected,” Voelkel said of the installation.
While he escorts you through it, you will benefit from the expertise he’s amassed over decades as one of the premier experts in severe pulmonary arterial hypertension and which he is eager to share.
“I recognized early on that the COVID-19 pandemic would be the formative event of our lifetime,” he continued. “It deserves our attention. The public needs to understand the virus so they can better protect themselves, their families and their community.” Using the voice of science filtered through the universal language of art is a succinct and interpretive means of accessing the general audience, he believes.
The exhibit also nods to the new vernacular of social media and beyond. “We cancel people; we unfriend or ‘ghost’ them,” Voelkel noted. “The notion of canceling is one of the threads that runs through the works on display.”
COVID has certainly become a metaphor writ large, as it has done a thorough job of disengaging us from the regular and special moments in our lives: holidays, weddings, birthdays. Voelkel’s “Pandora’s Box” is a mixed-media presentation of lives canceled in these different ways. It includes a cover from the May 18, 2020, The New Yorker magazine entitled “Class of 2020” on which graduates in caps and gowns also sport now-ubiquitous face masks.
“Classes were canceled; commencements were canceled,” said Voelkel of the cover. “Lives have been disrupted in ways that would have been unthinkable before this year.”
Sadly, other lives have been literally canceled. Consider “Death Scroll,” a mercilessly silent and sprawling accounting – number by number – of fellow New Mexicans whom we have lost. “These are the people that have been canceled by COVID. It is also an affirmation that we cannot forget them.”
Perhaps the most poignant and staggering depiction included in the exhibit is the mixed media and acrylic painting, “Goodbye by iPhone,” an intubated patient, lying on the edge of a darkness that will soon envelope him, and by his side a phone with a text message he cannot see: “Goodbye. Love you.”
Yes, it’s disturbing. It’s meant to be. Too many have died in this manner, separated from loved ones and alone in their final moments. It is a fate that Voelkel wants Taoseños to be spared and which, he believes, is achievable through observing the protocols that scientists stand behind.
Voelkel was born in Germany and graduated from the Universitaet Hamburg, Fachbereich Medizin medical school in 1971. In 1977 he, his wife and two children moved to the United States, and in 1981 he opened his own laboratory devoted to the study of pulmonary disease at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. After 25 years of practicing and teaching, he built a new laboratory affiliated with the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.
Today, he and his family split their time between Taos and Colorado. It’s been his chance to focus upon art – his other great, life’s passion.
“I always traveled with a journal, some colored pencils or a watercolor box,” he said. “In my downtime, I would sketch or record scientific thoughts. In fact, my first show at Bareiss Gallery, titled ‘Words–Images–Books,’ was an installation much like this one.”
Other Voelkel exhibits have been shown over the years at Bareiss Gallery, “But this is the first show I’m presenting as an M.D.,” he noted.
On the far side of the winter solstice there may be light from more than the
lengthening days. A vaccine for COVID-19 will become increasingly available and we can be cautiously optimistic about 2021. In the meantime, make a point of visiting with Norbert Voelkel and reaping the benefit of all he wishes to share with you.
“OUR Covid–Infection & Resurrection” will be available for viewing through Jan. 21, 2021. Subsequent to its opening the exhibition can be viewed by appointment. In accordance with current guidelines, masks and social distancing will be required at the opening reception and other visits.
Bareiss Gallery is located at 15 State Road 150, north of El Prado and next to the KTAO Solar Center. For further information, call (575) 776-2284, or visit