Radar Redux.com is expanding the traditional concept of journalism, to cover a wide array of Baltimore Arts and Culture.
The art scene has its own variation of “don’t ask don’t tell.” It is alright if you as an individual want to hang out on Sunday mornings mulling over an ancient text, worshiping a guy you consider to be the actual blood soaked son of God—it is a free country, but just don’t talk to us about it and don’t try and get us to join you and REALLY don’t stick it in any artwork we have to look at. My, my, my how liberal we artists are. Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, – we stand tall for them all. But when it comes to Christians, weeeeelllll, we get a little squeamish. I mean, we all have friends, even family members that are one but still that doesn’t mean we understand it.
Of course the art world in general does have a legitimate bone to pick with segments of the Christian community. Meaning the Christian right— those who have used progressive art as a punching bag scare tactic for many decades. Seriously deranged power mad homophobic groups like The Family or from the recent past famed arch NEA nemesis, the little North Carolina fat bastard that thankfully we can now refer to as the late Senator Jesse Helms (the same stinking polecat who filibustered the senate for 16 days in an attempt to stop the federal holiday for Martin Luther King) have engaged the art world in years of so called “culture war” that has indeed had the effect of cutting funding to what is considered progressive (read homosexual here) programming and altering the the general public’s perception of its own artists and arts organizations. But realistically the vast majority of Christians (and people) in this country are live and let live folks. And also, truth is, nothing gets artists working harder and better then a hint of fetid oppression, no matter how insignificant it really is (when compared to what many artists in the world face and we, dear Americans are pampered little poodles.)
So while we consider ourselves a very liberal lot, I personally know of only a handful of openly Christian artists —most of are in the Southern U.S. and of those the majority are associated with outsider art. I have known a number of Christian artists who keep their faith to themselves for fear of being judged. And when exhibiting work that overtly references their Christian faith, the work often is misunderstood or worse—simply rejected for exhibition. Chris Mona is an openly Christian artist, who like most individuals defies the annoying stereotypes of a statement like I just imposed on him. In my experience this has been the case with almost every Christian I have known, artist or not.
In a recent exhibition titled Millennial Dreams and Drama shown at the intimate upstairs Amalie Rothschild Gallery at the Fells Point Creative Alliance, Mona showed work that is strongly informed by his Christian faith and is a fascinating exploration into the holistic meaning of life, death, and the struggles of being.
Mona, a Maryland native was raised Catholic then when he married he converted to protestantism the faith of his wife.. He is a big big music fan and came of age during eighties the golden age of the D.C. punk scene, attending shows by the seminal band Minor Threat and the like. He was involved in the straight edge scene, which fit his personal values well. (His interest in music and album covers is apparent in the show.) From there he went on to attend Pratt earning a degree in art— returning to Maryland to live, raise a family and work. He currently teaches art history at Ann Arundel Community College, curates exhibitions and is making a name for himself with his most recent visual work—work inspired by a trip to Italy. There he saw Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255-1260 – c. 1318-1319) multi-paneled masterpiece The Maestà.
Upon his return to the states he set about creating a contemporary work of equal complexity that would deal in similar themes—but updated. This work is nearly completed, and Mona is seeking a location to present it. The work in the Creative Alliance exhibition was a cross section of the larger work, dealing with many of the same themes
We met up with him at the Creative Alliance at the end of his exhibition upstairs in the intimate upstairs gallery and recorded a lively 30-minute interview, touching on the themes of his work, his faith, the music connection and much more. Click here to listen to Chris Mona discuss his work in detail.
We look forward to the future unveiling of his nearly completed multi-paneled masterwork. That is, if he can find an arts organization unprejudiced and brave enough to exhibit it.
Millennial Dreams and Drama
Works by Chris Mona
Fells Point Creative Alliance
exhibition over
No Comments