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September Issue 2005
Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC, Features Works by Laura James
Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC, will present the exhibition, Stories from Ethiopian Icons, featuring paintings by Laura James in the Little Gallery at the Abbey Store/Visitor Center, from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31, 2005.
James, of Brooklyn, NY, is a self-taught painter of Antiguan heritage. She paints religious subjects and visual dramatizations of Bible stories using the iconography found in Ethiopian Christian art.
When James was asked to explain why she has an attraction to Ethiopian Christian images, she noted, "Around 1991 my husband and I were introduced to Ethiopia by Rastafarian friends (my husband is Jamaican). I was impressed with the fact that Ethiopia had never been colonized, and with the history of Ethiopia as a Christian country since the 4th century...(later) I saw a book titled, 'Ethiopian Magic Scrolls', I was attracted to the colors, the eyes of the angels and people, the details, and the simplicity of the art."
A critic of James's recent exhibition in Chicago commented that, "The church is supposed to be a universal church and supposed to embrace all ethnicities. (James' paintings) is for those who are open-minded."
James work is widely collected and exhibited including solo presentations at the Wright Gallery (NJ), the Ghenet Gallery (NY), MoCADA Museum (NY) and Union Theological Seminary (NY). Recently she lectured at the Art Institute of Chicago on "Ethiopian Iconography". James' public commissions include: The Fourteen Stations of the Cross (The Nativity Church, CA) and Let the Children Come Unto Me... (All Saints Catholic Church, NY).
James was commissioned by NY Mayor David Dinkins to create a "peace" mural and series of eleven angels throughout the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. She received further recognition when she was invited to appear on the PBS television series City Arts and on the cable program In-Style TV.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call Father Guerric Heckel at 843/761-8509 or
at (www.mepkinabbey.org).
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