Art
RUSSIAN ICONS IN ST. PETERSBURG An acclaimed artist showcases her work at St. Thomas, Snell Isle, plus an opportunity to attend two events associated with the exhibit.
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T. PETERSBURG - St. Thomas, Snell Isle will host Icons in Transformation, an exhibition that has toured churches, cathedrals, and museums in Europe and the United States. The show, which runs from now through Feb. 9, 2019, is the work of abstract expressionist artist Ludmila Pawlowska, a Russian émigré to Sweden, and includes more than 100 pieces of her modern icons, along with a dozen traditional religious icons. Though thousands have seen her work, which has been exhibited in Episcopal churches across the U.S., the exhibition marks the artist’s first appearance on Florida’s West Coast. “Why churches?” said Pawlowska in an earlier interview. “Churches are holy spaces.” Pawlowska comes from a family of Soviet dissidents. Her grandfather was deported to Siberia in 1936, when her father was two, while her uncles were taken by the state, separated and scattered across the nation to homes for children of state enemies. Her father grew to be a dissident as well, refusing to join the Communist Party. Her grandfather was ultimately freed when Nikita Krushchev opened the gulags, although he was not allowed to leave Siberia. The artist eventually departed Russia after meeting Jan Lech, an early-music specialist. They moved to Sweden in the hopes of starting an artists’ colony. Eventually, she went back to Russia, where she found new inspiration in ancient Russian Orthodox religious icons. Today, her work is firmly abstract expressionist, 12
but it often is seen through the lens of religious iconography. The pieces use various symbols — metal from old doors, locks, coarsely woven fabric, granite, metallic substances, fossils, wood and more to convey a message. The focus on the eyes is tied to the Veil of Veronica, a Christian relic bearing the likeness of Jesus after it was offered to him to wipe the perspiration from his face. When the artist approached St. Thomas about hosting her exhibition, the parish was keenly aware of the large time commitment it required: exhibits of this magnitude take over the whole church campuses, with art indoors, outdoors and across each campus. “Taking on the project was a leap for the parish, but was supported by its rector, the Very Rev. Ryan R. Whitley.
“This will be new to us, certainly,” said coordinator Mary Jane Park. “The power of prayer is amazing. We have had extremely generous sponsors and donors. We are able to hire professional art preparators. These are people that hang art in the Dali Museum; they know what they are doing and are very experienced.” While the artwork is almost all for sale, it is there for a larger goal; the parish hopes to not only make new people aware of the parish, but to enhance the worship for the current congregation and let them appreciate the spaces that they have.
Visit stthomasstpete.org for more information.
