The word “Anastasis” is connected to resurrection, and as a show title is quite descriptive of the work exhibited in the Biola art gallery. Jim Morphesis, a well-known painter from the L.A. area, is famous for his passionate and expressive portraits of the human figure and visceral paintings of meat.
Currently occupying both the main and annex galleries, Morphesis has filled the walls with his paintings — some that tower over the viewer and others that require close examination to really appreciate the detail and color on the surface. His large paintings of meat, in particular, are an experience in themselves. There are no words for the dwarfed feeling of standing by a 6 foot tall painting of meat.
An observant viewer would do well to notice things besides the subject matter — step up close to the painting and examine it closely for details and surprises you’ll miss from far away. Bring your nose up to the glass of a painting and you’ll suddenly find glitter, sand, grout, tape, and a host of unusual “not artsy” objects worked into the canvas itself. Morphesis purposefully builds on the surface of his canvas and then uses a sander to push it back, intentionally creating a surface that is unpredictable to work on.
All of the imagery in the paintings is symbolic — a quick glance will reveal flowers and hearts tucked everywhere amidst the twisting torsos, ribs, skulls and roses. They are deeply religious as symbols, many of them used in the Christian church as “memento mori”— a Latin phrase meaning “remember you are mortal,” – symbolic of the truth that all of us will face death. Death is definitely a strong motif in the show, from obvious references like hanging-meat paintings and skulls, to a row of rose paintings that symbolize fleeting beauty.
Yet it is hard to say the paintings are depressing. Perhaps they are a little hard to look at, once you realize you’re staring at hanging ribs and entrails. The paintings are so bright and colorful, you almost want to call them cheerful. You wouldn’t be far off in thinking so either. For Morphesis, the paintings are really less about the despair of death and more about the beauty and power of imagery. There is something about this concept that drew him to revisit the symbols over a period of decades — the show spans his work from the 80s to current day. It is from this repeated, concentrated study that the show title, “Anastasis” is drawn — these themes of mortality are literally being resurrected and explored in a new, fresh way each time.
