Samuel Abelow:
The Orphic Dance & Persephone's Eyes of Water
September 7th through September 27th, 2019
Reception Wednesday, September 11 from 4:00-6:00
The Azarian McCullough Gallery at St Thomas Aquinas College is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Samuel Abelow titled The Orphic Dance and Perspehone’s Eyes of Water. This body of work examines the relationship between Orpheus, the young, wildly romantic musician, and Persephone, the young woman, who has a cunning imaginative wit and powerful emotion.
The paintings are colorful and play with lyrical shapes, classical and exotic patterns that dance within malleable borders of the picture plane and imagery of mythic characters. In the course of exploring ancient myths and their variations across the timelines of historical culture, Abelow has developed central themes, or characters which have colors, patterns, sounds, and so forth. Each meditation on "Orpheus," or "Persephone" (as well as the others in his purview) are not just a personal intrigue, but become the catalyst for vibrant multicultural conversation in a public forum.
Abelow’s work is rooted as much in painting as it is in a deep inner probing of religion, philosophy, psychology, politics and history. Particularly, his work is of specific concern to psychology. There is a breadth of literature and material from across the arts that focuses on Orpheus and Persephone. It is with these through-lines that he explores the connections between political liberalism and postmodern philosophy, science and technology, psychoanalysis and world religions, as well art and art history.
This evocative work opens us to many questions about the human condition with various conclusions. One such conclusion might be: we all live mythic images. The work reveals that understanding life mythically and imaginatively provides for rich meaning and purpose.
Samuel Abelow lives and works in Easton, Connecticut. This is his first solo exhibition.
Installation featuring the “Your Eyes Water” painting and series.
Samuel Abelow, August 6, 2019
In my art practice, there is an ongoing development of a coloristic, symbolic, mythic, psychological and multicultural codex, which is fluid and intuitive, expressed in multimedia, and yet appears to be reaching towards increasing “objectivity” — a sense of clarity.
Poetic themes are explored in the history of traditional painting medium and thought, sound as craft and the composition of music, dance, gesture and costume, pattern, design and architecture, history, cultural comparison and mythological material, psychoanalysis and the rational mind.