The human form “capture[s] the energy, motivation and spirit that are reflected in every aspect of the subject,” says Basil Watson, a Jamaican artist now based in Georgia. When such forms are gathered with fists raised in united protest and hope, their energy is exponential. Whether it’s a bust of Rep.
Recently, faith leaders have been carrying prints of Mark Doox’s Our Lady of Ferguson to protests in cities across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and numerous other black men and women. Doox works within an icon-styled form he calls Byz-Dada (Byzantine Dadaism). His images are informed by “American democratic and spiritual ideals, the African-American experience, humanistic existential reality, black folksy wisdom and pragmatism”—which he combines with piercing, direct commentary.
Catholic painter Alfonse Borysewicz often takes inspiration from scriptural passages and liturgical rites. He has created an impressive body of work that hangs not only in galleries and private collections but in churches, monasteries, and seminaries from Brooklyn to Grand Rapids, Michigan. In this work, the background is formed from shredded musical scores. The requiem, traditionally played at a funeral mass, here takes on physical form, as if rent and stained by ash like a mourner’s garments.