Book of Souls Gallery

This summer when the artist William T. Ayton contacted me and proposed the idea of doing a collaborative project based on the concept “The Book of Souls” my mind immediately went to the idea of curating an exhibition by the same title. Part of the reason I was interested in the title is that it is evocative yet sufficiently vague as to allow for the inclusion of a variety of art. Additionally, I would have to confess a bias, in terms of my interest in art, for work that has “soul” (again, a vague, highly subjective evaluation). Ultimately in selecting artists for this show I looked for work that seemed “soulful” and also had some sort of multiple character that would imply a collection as one would find in a book.

New Jersey based artist Mario Andres Robinson makes drawings and paintings that focus on individuals. The images are portraits in the sense that they are fundamentally driven by the task of locating a specific person’s identity: perhaps their sould. One has the sense, although it is never explicitly stated, that the people Robinson is depicting are somehow connected; perhaps as members of the same community.

New York artist Rieko Fujinami also usually works from specific individuals, but her work moves explicitly in the direction of the spiritual / ethereal. The processes Fujinami uses to make her work evoke a place between the material and the immaterial. While the collection of works shown here represent specific children it is perhaps fitting that they are not identified individually, but only as “Infants”.

Portand artist Katie Griesar’s photographs move even further towards a kind of anonymous representation of the soul. Griesar uses various, experimental processes to re-photograph photographs. The results strip away most of what would make the images feel real in the specific sense and evoke that which is essential.

Chicago artist Barbara Cooper is represented here by a sculpture that evokes (for this viewer) a tree becoming a book; or perhaps the soul of a book. In general Coopers work explores the natural world in a way that directs the viewer towards the essence of the subject rather than it’s literal representation. Her sketchbooks present this vision in an even more playful fashion.

The Ayton & Lowly collaboration was directed by the two inclinations alluded to in the above: on the one hand, thinking of the soul in terms of specific individuals or on the other hand, thinking of the soul in terms of dematerialized spirits floating in the ether. William T. Ayton made ink drawings of personal friends and in conversation with them developed an accompanying image of a more fantastic nature that suggested some aspect of the spirit world. Tim Lowly then took these drawings and through digital hijinks produced what you see here. It actually doesn’t exist. Or does it.

Tim Lowly, Gallery Director

James and the Cycloptic Soul

Ayton & Lowly - digital print

Sketchbook Drawing

Barbara Cooper - mixed media

Untitled

Katie Griesar - photograph

Keyport Native

Mario Andres Robinson - graphite, 18" x 24"

Infants

Rieko Fujinami - mixed media on acrylic mirror, 24” x 24”