Thursday, March 20

6:30pm

Please join us for an Art Talk and discussion of Masami Teraoka’s current exhibition Inversion of the Sacred/ The Cloisters Last Supper – Triptych Series on Thursday, March 20 at 6:30pm.

THANK  YOU! Art This Week for their coverage of the art talk with Masami Teraoka. You may view the talk online courtesy of Art This Week!
Part I
Part II

My Cloisters Last Supper – Triptych Series addresses Catholic clerical sex abuse. Underlying this theme, I see an authoritative institution trying to dictate individuals’ sexual relationships, gender and morality. To bring out such compelling cultural issues and put them on the Last Supper table may be an appropriate place to start a dialogue – to investigate the anatomy of these abuses.

The Vatican’s history and culture as an institution with worldwide influence has inspired me, especially since fundamental human equality issues have always been at the top of my priority list. How does the Catholic Church’s teaching of celibacy fit into Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting? How could the nudity depicted in those masterpieces support anti-gay and anti-same sex marriage stances? Putting these puzzles together I see how brilliantly the Vatican has evaded clerical sex abuse issues for centuries and how all these pieces of historical information can finally be knit together  when a medieval era church meets a new generation of iPhone and iPad culture.

I think that technically, perhaps, the most engaging way to articulate such tough cultural challenges may be in a highly evolved vocabulary such as that of Renaissance painting or Ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Each of my narrative paintings create a fantastical aesthetic world where human folly and dilemma are expressed in such a way that the beauty and ugliness of human activity and psyche thrive in a complex visual poetic statement.

–Masami Teraoka, February 13, 2014

The exhibition Masami Teraoka: Inversion of the Sacred/ The Cloisters Last Supper – Triptych Series will be on view March 15 – May 3, 2014.