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November Issue 2004
Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC, Features Native American Icons
Fr. John Giuliani's Icon Series of Native American Images interpreting the "Virgin Mother and Child" will be on exhibit from Nov. 3 through Dec. 31, 2004, in the Little Gallery in the Book Room of the Mepkin Abbey Store in Moncks Corner, SC. These powerful religious images reveal a deep appreciation for Indian culture and traditions by contemporary iconographer.
In his work Giuliani draws on the techniques and forms of Byzantine iconography, but reinterprets them in ways that reflect Native American culture and spirituality. He notes that the Native American's "understanding of the world of nature and of God, their emphasis on being caretakers rather than exploiters of the land - all that is wonderfully consonant with the best of Christian thought and tradition."
Prior to his ordination in 1960 Fr. Giuliani studied at the Pratt School of Art and also worked with a Russian Orthodox master iconographer at the School of Sacred Art (NYC). Later he began a study of various Indian traditions and tribes searching for faces and patterns to feature in the icons he was painting. In 1977 Fr. Giuliani founded the Benedictine Grange in West Redding, CT where he lives a communal life and has his studio.
". . . Tte idea came to me of using the images of the continent's original peoples in icons, as a way of celebrating the spiritual gifts they have given to the world." Thus his paintings of the Virgin Mary and Child depict them in the dress and attitude of particular tribes, e.g., Crow, Hopi, Sioux, Navajo and Lakota.
While Fr. Giuliani's icons are on exhibition the Abbey store will feature an international collection of nativity sets for sale. Additionally, on the last two weekends in November the Abbey will present for the public the Annual Crèche Festival. In 2004 the festival will feature forty crèches from the international collection of over three hundred crèches given to the Abbey by Earl Kage. Earl retired from Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York where he managed the Kodak Research Studio. He has been collecting crèches for nearly fifty years. They were frequently exhibited at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery
For further information about the Giuliani exhibition of icons and about registration for the Annual Crèche Festival visit (www.mepkinabbey.org).
For more information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call Fr. Guerric Heckel, Mepkin Abbey Store
Manager at 843/761-8509, email to (Guerric@mepkinabbey.org), or
on the web at (www.mepkinabbey.org).
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