Ruble Above the Clouds

"Rumble Above the Clouds" Exhibit at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle 

Do you hear that sound? It's a Rumble Above the Clouds, Openings 5th group  exhibition at the historic Church of St. Paul the Apostle. Openings, an  artists' collective on Manhattan's West Side, which seeks to spark  discussion and interaction in the creative community, presents their  largest group exhibition to date.

Participating artists include:

Emily Adams, Robert Aitchison, Kinda Barazi, Maria Barbo, Christina Batch-Lee, Michael Berube, Araceli Cruz, Yoon Cho, Sal Dungca, Lauren Gohara, Baris Gokturk, Meg Graham, Danielle Goldsmith, Keena Gonzalez, Graeme Gerard Halliday, Iliyan Ivanov, Joey Kilrain, Ben Knight, Caitlin McKee, Lori Merhige, Anthony Santella, Nikki Schiro, Porn Siphanoum, Carrie Elston- Tunick, and Tim Webster 

Sept. 16th - Oct. 27th, 2011 

Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept. 29, from 7-9pm
 

Church of St. Paul the Apostle
Corner of West 60th & Columbus Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Alter
Michale Berube
2010
9.5 feet by 18.8 feet
Acrylic, fabric, glitter, gold/bronze pigment on canvas.
(photo of work installed over north entrance to church)

I am interested in the power of seduction. I am interested in a beauty that toys with excess and the abandon of Jouissance. I believe that seduction is a major element in my favorite work and in my own, I believe that beauty, an element of seduction, is something essential and not to be feared. My work has a direct relationship to the body, in its imagery and its scale. A core idea which is essential to my thinking and contributes heavily to my work is found in the word excess. Excess and the manner in which it has been interpreted and represented over the centuries is something that has always fascinated me conceptually. I have a profound connection to those excessive elements, as I interpret them, found in the art of the Baroque period, especially the religious art of Italy. 

Drawing from elements of that period, such as scale, shape, shine, pattern, and the symbolic nature of the metallic colors of gold and bronze, my latest work is driven by the idea that the excesses of our contemporary time might be represented through the creation of a contemporary version of the Baroque, divorced from the religious content and exploring a purely secular imagery. It offers me a way in which to address my identity issues by exploiting the inherently camp sensibility of the aesthetics of taste and the decorative. This camp sensibility confronts my interest in the concept of beauty and complicates a purely aesthetic reading of the work.