The Spirit Unveiled: Icons of Howard Lerner

Howard Lerner
May 4-June 12, 2016

Icons are objects traditionally employed in religious contexts to aide in contemplation and point towards the Divine. From color choices to symbols, each element of an icon is significant in how it is used. In Howard Lerner’s work we see everyday, ordinary materials that are reworked and put together with purpose. Each detail is intentional, culminating in images of new and modern icons that engage with their roots in ancient cultures.

Lerner draws from religious texts, weaving prophetic visions and dreams with circus scenes or creating fantastical figures that point beyond the physical to suggest the spiritual and the mystical. The artist’s voice possesses a prophetic element, calling us to imagination and to see beyond the traditional realm of possibility. In Lerner’s work especially, we are invited to engage with another world, one marked by familiar components but  is also strange and new.

This exhibit coincides with the season of Pentecost in the Church and Shavuot in the Jewish calendar. Both Pentecost and Shavuot commemorate and celebrate the extension of the Divine to humanity: respectively, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Christ’s followers, and the giving of the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. In casting dreams and visions out of common materials, "The Spirit Unveiled" speaks to the experience underlying both of these significant events: the profundity found in the possibility of higher wisdom, and the wonder in power poured out and communicated through earthen vessels.

Please visit www.howardlernerart.com for more information on the artist.

Curated by Blake J. Ruehrwein

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