Brooklyn church art exhibit features fresh take on Stations of the Cross

Posted Feb 20, 2015

STATIONS_POST_CARD_PRESS[The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew] To mark the season of Lent, The Episcopal Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew has invited 14 Brooklyn artists to contribute innovative works for a “stations of the cross” exhibit.

The tradition of walking the 14 stations of the cross, which portray the events leading to Jesus’ crucifixion, is an ancient Christian practice, but this exhibit “brings a new level of artistic expression to the experience,” according to a press release from the parish, part of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.

The stations will be open for viewing and meditation at St. Luke and St. Matthew at 520 Clinton Ave., Brooklyn, until April 16. The exhibit will embark on a five-city tour in July.

An image gallery of the artwork is available here.

“This project resurrects a connection between the church as patron of the arts and the artists as instruments of bringing the litany to the lay population,” said Anders Knuttson, the exhibit’s curator. The participating artists represent broad ethnic and religious backgrounds including Buddhists, Roman Catholics, Jews, and agnostics. Each artist was given free reign to create his or her individual interpretation of a selected moment of Jesus’ last journey.

The art reflects an array of styles including traditional illustrative depiction, found object assemblage, non-objective abstraction, and color–field interpretations. The participating artists are Pamella Allen, Audrey Anastasi, Joseph Anastasi, C. Bangs, Willie Mae Brown, Anders Knutsson, Franz Lanspersky, Sylvia Maier, Otto Neals, Donovan Nelson, Anne Peabody, Danny Simmons, Andrea Spiros, and Lawrence Terry.

The Episcopal Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew is open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, call 347-515-4044.


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Comments (7)

  1. Greta Mesics says:

    This is very exciting. I really love the rebirth of art in the church as a form of expression, worship, understanding and evangelism.

    I have just come home from our little church’s bilingual Via Crucis. Last year I redid the cover and end page of the bulletin for the service with a monoprint ( very abstracted image ) which is then repeated on the end page with a pencil over drawing which reveals the abstracted image to be a lamb. No one seemed to notice at all except for one child. I think we fall into habits which can be comforting but which can also keep us from seeing things anew. Perhaps wedding the habits of this lenten practice with new art work created by artists both familiar and unfamiliar with the Stations practice may help the worshippers see the road to the cross from new even unpredictable perspectives. Will the artwork be viewable online? Inspiring….

  2. Richard McClellan says:

    Not sure what a Jew, an Agnostic or a Buddhist could bring to this……..? Anybody that denies Jesus’s divinity just doesn’t get it.

  3. Greg Masztal says:

    This is one of the most beautiful, touching, and non-traditional artistic Stations of the Cross I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing!!! I would love to know if pieces are available after the exhibit!!! The link to the ENS article has been posted to our FaceBook page to share with our community. Thanks again!

  4. Doris Schultz says:

    Dear Greg
    I am the program manager for this exciting project. The intent is for our fundraising to team to raise the funds to purchase all 14 station and, with the help of the Bishop, install this permanent in a church in the US (location tbd). Then, Lent 2016 would start with a new group of 14 artists with 14 new interpretations of the stations. We will be posting information about each artists and individuals could reach out to individuals to discuss their work. We are also going to be videoing each artist as they discuss their process when creating their own work – each artist meditated on their station as they were creating their work. We are following up this installation with the same artists creating a work based on the “Resurrection”.

  5. Doris Schultz says:

    All of the images are available at the following website: http://www.tablarasagallery.com/html/stations.html

    1. Maureen Barnhart says:

      Thank you from Portland, OR

  6. Anne L. Reath says:

    I hope you will show all the stations. We can’t all get to Brooklyn.

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