Icons in Transformation, St. Pete

An acclaimed artist showcases her work at St. Thomas, Snell Isle, plus an opportunity to attend two events associated with the exhibit.

ST. PETERSBURG - St. Thomas, Snell Isle hosts Icons in Transformation, an exhibition that has toured churches, cathedrals, and museums in Europe and the United States.

The show, which runs 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, 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.

Events Relating to Exhibition

THE REV. DR. JULIA GATTA ON CONTEMPLATION SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8 | 10 AM

Julia Gatta is the Bishop Frank A. Juhan Professor of Pastoral Theology in the School of Theology, the University of the South, Sewanee. A noted expert on Christian spirituality and prayer, Dr. Gatta has led retreats and workshops using the contemplation of icons as a prayer method. An Episcopal priest, she served parishes in Connecticut for 25 years before moving to Sewanee. She holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Cornell University. Mother Gatta is the author of The Pastoral Art of the English Mystics (first published in 1987 as Three Spiritual Directors for our Time) and The Nearness of God: Parish Ministry as Spiritual Practice (2010). Go in Peace: The Art of Hearing Confessions, written in collaboration with Martin Smith, appeared in 2012. Her most recent publication is Life in Christ: Practicing Christian Spirituality.

THE REV. PAUL FROMBERG ON ICONS SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 | 10 AM

The Rev. Paul Fromberg is the rector of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. He has a Doctor of Ministry from Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and served at Christ Church Cathedral and St. Andrew’s Church, Houston from 1987 to 2004. Paul is an iconographer and multimedia artist, and has taught courses in liturgics and congregational development at Virginia Theological Seminary. He is a consultant with congregations across the country, and has been a speaker at the Wild Goose Festival and the Greenbelt Festival in Great Britain.

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church 1200 Snell Isle Blvd, St. Petersburg through February 2020. Visit stthomasstpete.org for more information.