Visionaries: Christianity and the Visual Arts

Christianity and the Visual Arts

Advent Exhibition 2017: Theme

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The Advent exhibition at Brookfield is to have suitably themed work with an Australian setting or symbols. This will also relate to much of the work by one of the original advisors, the late Rev. David Binns, whose “Saints from the Suburbs” series gave a Brisbane setting to his re-picturing of the biblical story. Dr. Lindsay Farrell will deliver the David Binns Memorial Lecture at Brookfield on Wednesday, October 25th.

Opening of Exhibition: December 8 until after Christmas. More details to come.

Mondorla 2018 Art Prize Launched

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2018 Mandorla Art Award launched

The 2018 Mandorla Art Award was launched on March 30 in conjunction with the Bible Society of Australia celebrating their 200th anniversary. It took place in Wesley Church in the city with an exhibition of 12 of the finalists from last year.

The Award is Australia’s only thematic Christian art award with themes defined by a quotation from the Bible and all participating artists invited to interpret this in their own way. The privilege to co-celebrate with the Bible Society was important as the aims of both organisations are bound with the same values.

The theme for the 2018 Mandorla Art Award, is taken from Revelations 21:1-2 and provides artists with an opportunity to reflect on what that will mean for us and offer the rest of us a way in which to imagine what is to come.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
 

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev 21:1-2

 
Rev Professor Bill Loader offered us a way of understanding this text and concluded with a dare to artists:
Dare to hope! Dare to dream! Dare to imagine! Dare to depict and portray!
 
Prize money for the main award’s overall winning entry is $25,000 sponsored by St John of God Healthcare, with the two highly commended awards being $5,000 each. The People’s Choice is for $2,000 and is sponsored by the New Norcia Benedictine Community. The main award’s overall winning artwork is acquisitive and all other artworks are for sale.
All submissions must clearly demonstrate a direct relationship to the theme, Revelation 21:1-2.
More information on the theme, application process and the opening exhibition will soon be on the Mandorla website www.mandorlaart.com. 

About the Mandorla Art Award
 
The Mandorla Art Award for contemporary religious art is Australia’s most significant thematic religious art prize, attracting some of the country’s finest artists since its 1985 inception. For more information, visit www.mandorlaart.com
 
About St John of God Health Care
 
St John of God Health Care is a leading not for profit Catholic health care group, employing 9,300 caregivers across 13 hospitals, pathology, home nursing and Social Outreach and Advocacy services in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.sjog.org.au

Journey to Christmas: Barbara Niczynski

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“Unravelling”, acrylic on canvas, 60cm x 90cm

Artist: Barbara Niczynski

Artist Statement:

The artist thinks about God as engaged in a journey towards the incarnation and so pictures an unravelling. “When I consider the wild, untameable nature of God, the enormity of creation, what effort the unravelling of the Godhead it must have been! God reduced beginning redemption as one cell in a human being. We think of Jesus suffering on the cross, but I think his suffering started at that point of laying aside his power for us”.

Journey to Christmas: Marcelien Hunt

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“All the world should be taxed (Lk 2:1-2)”, oil on canvas, 50cm x 50cm

Artist: Marcelien Hunt

Artist Statement:

Luke 2: 1-3

  1. And it came to pass in those there went out a decree… that all the world should be taxed.
  2. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.
  3. And all went out to be taxed…

2000 years later upon Advent the world is again being taxed. This is the taxing of all peoples across all nations by refugees. As God led his people out of Egypt, this exodus of Syrian refugees is an issue each should decide where and why they stand where they do. Do you face the crowd with your back to the world or do you turn to face the journey with Babe safely in your arms?

 

The Journey: Geraldine Wheeler

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Geraldine Wheeler: "Flight from the dictator: with reference to Picasso and Fairweather, Gouache stencil painting on paper, 40 x 51cm

Geraldine Wheeler: “Flight from the dictator: with reference to Picasso and Fairweather, Gouache stencil painting on paper, 40 x 51cm

Geraldine Wheeler

Artist Statement

The central reference of this painting is the story in Matthew 2:1-18 of the journey of the Holy Family fleeing King Herod after the visit of the Magi. The reference to Picasso is the use of figures expressing great grief similar to those in his large painting, Guernica, which critiques the Nazi bombing of that Basque town in Spain in 1937 and the reference to Fairweather relates to his depiction of the massacre of the infants in Epiphany (QAG Collection). The story of the refugee Holy Family on the journey to Egypt can be seen to have parallels in what still happens in the world today and the plight of the refugees fleeing war and cruelty.