Mary Anna Pomonis @ Lancaster Museum of Art & History
Mary Anna Pomonis: Iris Oculus
Solo Show at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History
February 8 - April 7, 2020 (Opening Reception February 8, 4-6PM)
For more information, please contact LADIES’ ROOM: info@ladiesroomla.org
Mary Anna Pomonis’s artwork operates in the space where mysticism, abstract painting, geometry, and popular culture intersect. Her source materials are quilt squares, icons, geometry, and abstract painting. Commenting on symbols of personal power, Pomonis’s paintings often refer directly to crests and banners: their central forms generated from the sacred geometry embedded in forms like the Gothic rose window and decorative motifs in ancient temple architecture. Pomonis states, “The light, language, and form of historically sacred artwork was designed to move the body. I want my work to move through the viewer, creating a feeling of energy and possibility in a world mitigated by digital screens and societal filters.”
In Iris Oculus, her solo show at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Pomonis focuses on the eight-pointed star, or temple rosette, form of the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna, sometimes called Ishtar or Artemis. In ancient Greece, Iris, the messenger goddess, was a direct intercessory to Artemis. Fascinated by the intercessory images of the Theotokos (Mother Mary) from her upbringing in the Greek Orthodox Church, Pomonis makes visual connections to the gradient mandorlas in icon painting. She also focuses on the geometry of the architecture and its design utilized to create an aesthetic feeling in homage to goddesses of antiquity.
Pomonis’s paintings titled with the female pronouns, she, use the ancient temple poetry forms of the Sumerian scribe, Enheduanna. Enheduanna’s epic poem, Lady of the Largest Heart, contains the first usage of the first-person in written language. Enheduanna repeats the line, “She is the Great Me,” throughout the poem, creating a direct connection to the divine in language. The title of the painting, She is Animated, directly refers to the she pronoun in the poetry. The image of the polytope flying and spinning in space in an animated fashion depicts the artist’s direct connection to the ancient, utilizing modern software tools and an airbrush to animate and rotate the pattern of the eight-point star in the painting. The same technique is evident in Her Rosettes Burst Open (after Sabina Ott), as well as the bulging centers of the octagonal artwork.
Female artists have made spiritual artwork throughout the history of painting. This tradition has been most apparent in the 20th century work of Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, and Agnes Martin. Pelton's work, similar to O'Keeffe and Martin, focused on the abstract and phenomenological in nature. About her own work, Pelton said, "The vibration of this light, the spaciousness of these skies, enthralled me"(1). Pomonis’s work operates to create a similar feeling in an environment that is both contemporary and iconic, creating a space for personal power symbols to connect herself to the history of humanity and back to the artwork. Annie Wharton writes,“This is an exercise in becoming, of meditation and deference to a mysticism remote…” (2).
In Iris Oculus, Pomonis wryly comments on the overall Light in Space theme of the concurrent exhibitions at LMAOH. Her practice takes the language and physicality of the Light and Space movement in Southern California and adds her own critical inquiry about the nature of art itself. The Light and Space movement acted as a sacred moment in an otherwise secular art world. Pomonis has deftly woven her personal icons into devotional objects, turning the austere elements of light and space into kaleidoscopic intimate reveries.
(1) Zakian, Michael (1995). Agnes Pelton: Poet of Nature, Palm Springs Art Museum
(2) Wharton, Annie (2018). Mary Anna Pomonis: Into Her, Catalog Essay, Woodbury University
The Light of Space
Lancaster Museum of Art and History
Spring Solo exhibitions by Laddie John Dill, Jay Mark Johnson, Kysa Johnson, Shana Mabari, Mary Anna Pomonis, and Robert Standish.
Selections from the Permanent Collection
The Light of Space features the work of nine artists, including Jay Mark Johnson’s x = time in the Main Gallery; Kysa Johnson’s Faraway, So Close series in the Moore Family Trust Gallery; Shana Mabari’s Letters on Sunspots in the Bozigian Family Gallery; Robert Standish’s Rhythmic series; Mary Anna Pomonis’ Iris Oculus series in the Wells Fargo Gallery; and Laddie John Dill’s Contained Radiance Lancaster installation in the South Gallery. The exhibition will also feature two site-specific installations, Light Refractions by Edwin Vasquez and Glitterworks by Gary Lang, as well as a video installation, GO HOME, by Jeff Frost. Works from MOAH’s Collection by Ruth Pastine and Gisela Colon will also be on display. Space has captivated the minds of scientists, writers, mathematicians and artists alike for generations. The Light and Space movement was brought on by the rapid growth of the aerospace industry in Southern California during the 1960s and 70s and artists who sought a deeper understanding of the universe. These artists created sublime and transcendent environments that fully engaged the viewer by using space-age materials such as resin, acrylic, neon and fluorescent lights. The Light of Space exhibition focuses on 21st century artists who continue to examine how changing time, scale and perception can influence humankind’s relationship with space and its various interpretations.
Check out Mary Anna Pomonis website here.