The Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center will open its exhibit season Friday, Sept. 28, with new collage work by Father James Palmigiano, O.C.S.O. Father James is a Cistercian monk who constructs delicate and intimate collage panels, which represent his own interior vision and s
pirituality.
"Passages" will open with a reception Thursday, Sept. 27, from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will run through Oct. 27 (the gallery will be closed Oct. 6 through Oct. 9). The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public.
This exhibition continues Chapel Art’s focus on art and contemplation, part of an ongoing discovery of how the vita contemplative - the contemplative life - inspires and facilitates an artistic sensibility and spirit.
"Father James is trained in art," says Father Iain MacLellan, O.S.B., director of Chapel Art. "He took up collage work because as a very busy monk he could find time for this, and as a vestment maker he became enamored of 'scraps.' "
Father Iain will offer a talk on "Art and Contemplation" Thursday, Oct. 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the gallery. He also will hold a Learning Lunch Workshop, "Piece by Piece: The Substance of Collage Work" Thursday, Oct. 25, at noon.
In a separate event, Chapel Art will host a talk by Dr. Laurence Kanter, curator-in-charge, Robert Lehman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kanter will lecture on "Discovering Fra Angelico" Friday, Sept. 21, at 4 p.m. in the New Hampshire Institute of Politics Auditorium.
The lecture on the 15th century Italian painter is part of the Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation Distinguished Lecturer Series and is also supported by the Robert Lehman Foundation Inc., Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, in conjunction with the Chapel Art Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Image: Untitled Collage, 2006, by James Palmigiano, O.C.S.O.