Works on Paper & Paintings by Alfonse Borysewicz

 

In the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Manhattan

Feb. 20- April 11, 2020

Reception: Thursday, March 5, 7-9pm 

 

Works will include:

Stations of the Cross (14 works on paper) located under each of the traditional stations

and in the St. Theresa shrine:

 End of Scapegoating --Requiem (for Rene Girard) Oil & Wax on Linen/Musical Score Collage with Gold & Silver Leaf

Savior  Oil & Wax on Linen with Gold Leaf   

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“Christ dies because he refuses to submit to the law of violence…Christianity sends back to human beings the violence that they have always projected onto their divinities…the Gospel narratives is even more right because to defend our victims it is obliged to condemn their persecutors, which is to say ourselves…What’s unique about the Passion is not the way in which Christ dies—how could crucifixion be unique given that it’s the most common torture in the Roman world?—it’s that instead of ending with a sacralization of the scapegoat, it ends with a desacralization of the whole system…Christians are those who do not make him their scapegoat…instead of divinizing human violence projected unto the scapegoat… Christianity divinizes the one who, through death freely accepted, escapes the circularity of lies and violence that generates false gods.”

Rene Girard (Where These Things Begin, Conversations with Michel Treguer)

 

 

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan Alfonse Borysewicz completed his seminary studies (philosophy and theology) there before moving to Boston where he first exhibited and settling in New York City in 1987. After many years of exhibiting abstract painting here and abroad Borysewicz returned to his interest in religious painting traditions.  In 1995 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in painting. His work is included in many collections and has been written about extensively.  Alfonse Borysewicz’ vocation is to find new ways to express an ancient faith. He combines the visual language of abstraction with collage and figurative elements to craft contemporary religious paintings. In his hands, nests, honeycombs and sacred persons are transformed into poetic images of wonder. He will soon be featured in a new PBS series titled Closer to Truth/Art and Religious Belief.