Alex Grey - The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors
Why am I looking at them
Who are they, what is their career
Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visionary artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner. His body of work spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting.
What is the artworks/concept or practice that they are focusing on
The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) is a transdenominational church and organization dedicated to the realization of a shared 1985 vision of the American artists Alex and Allyson Grey to build a contemporary public Chapel as 'a sanctuary for spiritual renewal through contemplation of transformative art' [1]
Conceived to house Alex Grey's Sacred Mirrors (a series of twenty-one art-works that examine the body, spirit, and mind in rich detail) along with other important works of visionary and contemporary spiritual art, CoSM's stated mission is "Building an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire every pilgrim's creative path and embody the values of love and evolutionary wisdom".[2]
On September 12, 2008, after a lengthy search for a permanent site, The Foundation for the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors purchased a forty-acre former interfaith center on the Hudson River 65 miles north of New York City in the Wheeler Hill Historic District in Wappinger, N.Y. . In November 2008, CoSM was recognized as providing an extraordinary environment for contemplation, and as a center for encouraging the creative spirit, and was granted Church status with a permanent 501(c)(3).
With the Greys' desire to make the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors open and representative to all visionary and contemporary sacred art, visiting artists are encouraged to create murals, labyrinths, gardens, and sculptures; most notably Kate Raudenbush's Altered State, a two-story domed steel structure first seen at Burning Man in 2008[2] that now resides in a meadow on the CoSM grounds.
Grey’s paintings can be described as a blend of sacred, visionary art and postmodern art. He is best known for his paintings of glowing anatomical human bodies, images that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality. His art is a complex integration of body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, a life-sized series of 21 paintings, took 10 years to complete, and examines in detail the physical and metaphysical anatomy of the individual. "The inner body is meticulously rendered - not just anatomically precise but crystalline in its clarity"[1]
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[1] David Ian Miller (March 24, 2008). "LSD Helped Forge Alex Grey's Spiritual, Artistic and Love Lives". San Francisco Chronicle "Finding My Religion" series.
[2] http://www.sculpture.org
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