The Accidental Buddhists

Artists’ Sacred Visions at Tibet House The gallery at Tibet House is hosting “Sacred Vision, Separate Views: Contemporary Buddhist Perspectives In Art,” an exhibition of works by six artists whose study and practice of Buddhism have informed their work in distinctly different ways not readily identifiable as “Buddhist art”. Here is an exhibition that is vibrant and dynamic in its larger than usual dimensions, such as Japanese artist Shigeru Oyatani’s fiery red Party Line and the blizzard white No, each a 72-inch square, right- angled to each other in one corner of the gallery. There is mystery hidden in Oyatani’s great squares, as there is in two works by poet-painter James Walton Fox, who often incorporates script, including Arabic, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Farsi, as a visual device. Proof embodies vowels and consonants of the “Ali Kali” alphabet as well as Euclidian Proof, while his more ephemeral seeming Sky Burial contains a poem of his own that follows the metrics as the Buddhist Seven-Line Prayer. Valley Fox’s Venus In Furs Feast Offering #11 is a bold departure from her exuberantly erotic flower “portraits”; also here one sees the untame d, cascading fluidity of Pale Fire. The eye rests a moment on [...]