Spiritually speaking
‘Churches of New Mexico’ features stunning pieces of painting, photography and sculpture
The Sumner and Dene gallery is hosting a stunning “The Churches of New Mexico” invitational painting, photography and sculpture exhibition featuring a plethora of styles through Oct. 31.
The long east wall teems with magic, sacred mystery and spiritually inspired emotional responses to religious architecture.
BC Nowlin wades into the fray with “Season,” a dynamic cruciform composition brimming with elegant architecture, a phenomenal palette and his signature crosscultural figures inexorably moving toward the architectonic center symbolizing a cathedral, mecca or a fantastic vision of Chimayó.
The universality of Nowlin’s powerful vision transcends cultural tribalism, which embraces and emblematizes people striving for some kind of spiritual reconciliation with the creative force.
In glorious black-and-white, Rocky Norton adds a touch of cynicism to the wall with his mural-scale “The Tow Truck Has No Tire, The Crane Has No Driver and The Ego Holds No Water,” an abstracted albeit easily recognizable view of our current industrialized assault on the fragile complexity of the living earth. I’ll leave it to the viewer to ponder the meaning of a tow truck hauling a crucifix.
The show includes several well-executed photographs with multimedia artist Joan Fenicle’s “Nuestra Señora del Rosario, Truchas, New Mexico” among the most outstanding. Her image is a beautifully toned blackand-white composition that
sets the architecture in front of dramatically billowing clouds that echo the ascending spire as if celebrating the church’s heavenward aspirations.
Although most offerings are two-dimensional, sculptor Tim Prythero submitted four highrelief architectural pieces and one free-standing large-scale stunner titled “Ranchos de Taos.” Prythero has spent his masterful career miniaturizing memories of quieter times when we examined and appreciated the rich details of quotidian life.
In his “Ranchos Church” relief, Prythero captures the façade of a structure built in adobe with loving hands devoted to the task but not committed to perfection. There are few straight lines or sharp corners in traditional New Mexico architecture, and Prythero revels in that aesthetic. The church doors are a bit out of square while supporting layers of aging paint imbuing them with a palimpsest character. One of three crosses atop the building is the victim of high winds or a bird strike, leaving it jauntily off its vertical axis.
In all, Prythero beautifully narrates the story of sacred spaces in an enchanted place.
New Mexico artist Angus Macpherson submits “Moon Dance,” a rendering of the Lasalle Chapel in twilight. The iconic image is hung high on the wall giving it the stature of a nocturnal vision or dream. Its small scale belies its large impact on the senses.
I love Alice Webb’s softfocus style for its user-friendly approachability and luscious palette. Her half-dozen contributions are all highquality paintings.
If Reg Loving were playing baseball, his triples and homers would put him in the hall of fame. But he often hits one out of the park, as in “Iglesia en el Borde Del Mundo” a romanticized jaw-dropper apprehending in luscious hues the distinctive qualities of New Mexico’s magnificent landscape from a bird’s-eye view.
The whitewashed chapel in the foreground gives witness to a deep valley under an ochre sky. The far horizon is broken by a long mesa pierced by an orange dagger of light. Lollipop trees dance across the middle ground, creating a surrealistic scene that can happen only where heaven and earth are one.
There’s much more in this fabulous show. Don’t miss it.