By Rachel Galvin

When a group of people disappears what stories remain? And who will tell their tales? Just as rings of a tree tell its history, the wooden canvases used by artist Whitfield Lovell tell the history of the African Americans he draws upon them. These wooden boards are just one form of canvas he used in his thought-provoking exhibit now on display through May 21 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Opened on Feb. 15, the exhibit, entitled “Passages” hints at the passage people took from their homes in Africa to the ports to then be transported forcefully to the United States via the slave trade, as well as how their journey continued from there.

The images were created by Lovell based on photographs of unidentified African Americans taken between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Movement. He also incorporated found objects to further symbolize each person’s role or indicate items they may have used in life. We can only guess who they once were and the struggles they encountered.

Within the exhibit, he had a historic “home” created as well, compete with dining room table and piano.

Lovell also installed a multi-sensory display called “Deep River,” which documents the perilous journey freedom seekers took by crossing the Tennessee River to “Camp Contraband” in Chattanooga during the Civil War. The installation includes three immersive video projections of a river filmed at night, enveloping the viewers with the sound of waves lapping surrounding a large mound of soil embedded with vintage objects, ropes, lamps, weapons, utensils, a Bible and more. Looking as if it was a forgotten campsite, the mound is filled with objects people may have used and left behind. The room is also filled with 56 large wooden foundry molds, each depicting a nameless African American lost to the sands of time, except for his attempt to revive what their life might have been like. This is just one part of the overall exhibit.

The mood of the exhibit is a bit solemn and reflective but hopeful, bringing thoughts of people’s pride of self, perseverance and determination, as well as struggle for survival and quest for freedom and home.

Lovell, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, said, about the title of the exhibit, “Life is a series of passages, a series of trips, milestones. Good trips, bad things, all experiences — friendship, love.”

When asked what he hopes people will take away from viewing the exhibit, he said, “You know when you go to a theater and you find yourself humming a tune, something got to you…” He said similarly he hopes something reaches out to the people viewing his art and leaves them with something they can take with them, and leaves a lasting effect.

He added, “As an artist, the best thing I can do is to heighten awareness, make people feel, make people think … but, when I make the art, I’m just putting out my art. Hopefully, if I’m doing it the right way, it will do all those things. It will make people think and make people feel. It may just change some people’s minds.”

The exhibit was organized by the American Federation of Arts in collaboration with the artist. (See more pics below).

Also, upstairs in the museum, make sure to check out the exhibit of Oswaldo Vigas. The work of this Venezuelan artist incorporates such styles as surrealism, cubism and constructivism. His abstract pieces are vibrant with a multicultural and exotic feel. This exhibition comprises paintings from the 1950s to 1970s. His exhibit, also on display until May 21, was organized by the museum in collaboration with the Fundación Oswaldo Vigas and coincides with the recent launch of a catalogue raisonné of his work.

Both exhibits were introduced at a special opening night event, at which Lovell was present. Guests could enjoy drinks and light bites in the courtyard, as well as live music.

To find out more about the exhibit and the museum, visit https://bocamuseum.org.

In the courtyard…

More photos from Lovell exhibit:

Above: Vincent Castiglia with HR Giger’s work.

By Rachel Galvin

Known for his futuristic airbrushed images, H.R. Giger developed a following that has continued long after he has left the earthly plane. This Swiss artist meshed man and the mechanical with seamless precision and created something new. His work was so revolutionary that it was given a new name – biomechanical. His pieces are beautiful and transfixing while at the same time horrifying, alien and mysterious. Beyond the surreal, his almost inexplicable artwork is sublime. His is a dystopian universe filled with nightmarish imagery that caters to the sci-fi and horror-loving crowd especially. After all, he was the creator of the eighth passenger in “Alien,” which won an Oscar for special effects. That was not the only film he worked on. He worked on album covers as well. 

Giger passed away in 2014, but not before inspiring and mentoring a young artist named Vincent Castiglia. He even gave the budding artist his first solo show. Today, that artist has his own studio. He is a successful tattoo artist and uses his place also as gallery space. Now, Castiglia has many of Giger’s works on display in a special exhibit featuring several original works along with prints.

Castiglia’s work, a collection entitled “Stations of Embodiment” also will be on display in a side gallery. Employing a similarly dark theme and also steeped in symbolism, his pieces are just as captivating. Channeling Michaelangelo’s “Creation of Adam,” this artist puts his life force into every one of his paintings, transferring literally his own blood, sweat, and possibly tears, to the canvas. The canvas itself is even composed of material from the same paper company Michaelangelo himself once used. Castiglia has an RN take vials of blood from him to use as his medium, from which he creates monochromatic masterpieces. He said this collection of artworks show the stations of humanity, epiphany or transcendence. 

His arresting piece “The Sleep” hits you like a ton of bricks leaving you awestruck at the skill used to create it and the symbolism behind it. The figures on the oversized canvas are posed like a Pieta, with what appears to be Pan, or a devil, holding a decomposing mortal man helplessly asleep in his arms, “cradled by the blind force of Typhon.” Seeds fall upward from his head toward Nature’s god above him. Everything is topsy turvy and man knows not what he truly is. “You can’t have light without darkness,” Castiglia said. This is just one of the masterful pieces on display.

Asked his process for its creation, he said. “I draw it first. Each art piece takes three weeks to three months.”

His piece called “Feeding,” like “The Sleep” is set up with one figure cradling the other. In this case it is a woman in a wheelchair who is decomposing yet nurtures a newborn, holding him or her up to her breast for sustenance when she cannot even sustain herself anymore. Set like “The Sleep” in a natural background with flora and fauna, it indicates the natural way of things, man’s, or in this case woman’s, humanity and the cycle of life.

Castiglia appropriately came from Hell’s Kitchen in New York here to South Florida a year ago and many of his clients have followed him here, clamoring for his tattoo art. He spent 23 years in the Big Apple honing his skills. But his artwork and the fact of how it is made is what truly captivated this reporter. 

Yet, this humble artist wants to throw the focus more on his mentor, Giger, who he met in the Czech Republic. He worked on two shows with him and then eventually his first solo show in 2008. Giger’s agent became his agent. Replicating some of Giger’s work creates some of his best tattoos, he said. “Giger was a dear friend and mentor” and he said he is honored to show homage to him and expose his work and originals in what is the first solo show of his work. Being with him, he said, was like “sitting at the feet of a shaman,” and he said that Giger was “communicating something with a structural truth,” and his work was divinely inspired. It is hard to believe a man created such imagery, he added. 

Castiglia started doing art at a young age. It was something he said he did “relentlessly” and that he did a lot of drawings. He found, like a lot of artists, that artistic creation was quite a catharsis for everyday life. Using blood as a medium was a way of presenting truth, including his own personal truth, onto the canvas. He called it “transforming oneself into the content” and a “direct window into the psyche.”

Castiglia got a chance to work on an album cover for Triptykon, which Giger also worked on. Giger was on the cover and Castiglia’s work was on the inside. He did not want to create vague imagery, so he interviewed each person in the band to get a sense of who they were and what they valued before doing the portraits of each. It was a mix of their personalities and specific entities he assigned to each.

He also did a portrait of Gregg Allman, of the Allman Brothers, made out of the blood of Gregg and his children. It was hung in his studio. 

There is nothing shallow about Castiglia’s artwork. They are imbrued with much symbolism, as the artist himself seems to be grappling with life’s mysteries, the eternal energy that is neither created nor destroyed, the butterfly effect that proves interconnectedness among all beings, the primordial reasoning beneath it all … love?

“It’s been an ineffable honor to be a mere emissary of displaying Giger’s work to the region.” 

Stephen Romano curated the show that is currently on display and the show will be available for viewing until Feb. 28 by appointment only. There will be a closing night party at the gallery at 2227 S. Federal Hwy., Ft. Lauderdale.on the 23rd from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information and to schedule a viewing or RSVP, visit www.vincentcastigliagallery.com.

Next, Castiglia will have Burton C. Bell’s work on display. Bell does the vocals behind Fear Factory and it is the first exhibit of his photography. It will be held on March 11. 

By Rachel Galvin

Black & White Night by Funding Arts Broward always is a beautiful evening filled with art, music, food and networking. Gathering at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale on January 9, lovers of the arts came out once again this year to sip some wine, try some hors d’ oeuvres and decadent deserts, listen to classical music performed by Dillard High School students and DJ Israel Charles, and have a curated tour of the latest exhibits in the museum. The event celebrated the 20th year of FAB preserving and cultivating arts in Broward County.

Curator Ariella Wolens began with talking about the exhibit by Kathia St. Hllaire. She was inspired by Haitian Vodun flags and a child of Haitian parents, so much of St. Hillaire’s artwork revolves around Haiti – its culture, politics and people. Her exhibit, on display until April 23, is titled “Immaterial Being.” This is a reference to a speech by former Haitian President François Duvalier, otherwise known as Papa Doc (1907-1971). In 1964, he overturned the constitution and announced himself “President for Life” and proclaimed himself an “immaterial being,” incapable of being overpowered by his enemies. Instead of focusing on the politics of the proclamation, she focuses on its spirituality, as the president was considered an eternal, spiritual force, a reincarnation of the Vodun spirit of Baron Samedi, the venerated Loa (spirit) of the dead. She also uses the title to reference the disembodied force of labor, of the people who are invisible and unacknowledged, according to the website.

This young artist grew up in African American and Caribbean neighborhoods and through her work she hopes to memorialize these communities within her innovative printmaking techniques. A master of mixed media, she employs everything from fabric to beauty products, weaving them together. She even utilizes industrial metal and tires. Her work is a mix of past and present woven into one, a commentary on how historic issues have not been solved yet. She comments on topics like assimilation, subjugation, spirituality, history and more. A large-scale whirl against the wall symbolizes a hurricane and seems to pose questions. Could the spirits of those who crossed the middle passage from Africa to the states who were forced into slavery be causing the tumult of the storms we see here in the Sunshine State? Are they seeking revenge for their experience? 

The other exhibition Wolens showed to guests is called “I Had a Wonderful Life” and was created by artist Scott Covert. It will also be on display until April 23. His pieces all consist of rubbings of gravestones of people who he felt had character. The artistry of these pieces not only comes in the final product, but in the selection of the people presented and how he organizes them together on one canvas. What theme is he relaying in each? How are they related? His work is beyond just the canvas too; it is about the journey. For 40 years, he has been traveling the world to find the actual gravestones of these people and doing a rubbing of their gravestones.

In Victorian times, grave rubbing was a la mode, but it is less done these days, making his work very unique, albeit a bit macabre. Some of the gravestones include funny sayings. These final words are not mournful, but joyous. According to the website, their uplifting sentiment resonates with Covert’s attitude towards his art — each work is a celebration, a signifier of life, memory and profound experience.

For more information on these and other exhibitions at the museum, visit https://nsuartmuseum.org.

For more information on Funding Arts Broward, visit https://fundingartsbroward.org.

Photos taken by Rachel Galvin