New York artist Jordan Eagles began using animal blood as a painting medium 15 years ago in response to a philosophical debate with his best friend about life after death and the connection between body and spirit. Traditional red paint fell short of expressing the emotional vitality that Eagles sought, so he ventured to local slaughterhouses. But the works he created changed shade as the blood oxidized, causing Eagles to develop a means of suspending and encasing the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin in a way that permanently retains the organic material's natural colors and textures. His innovative technique challenges nature by preventing the works from decomposing. MOCRA is pleased to present for the first time in St. Louis these arresting works that both fasci- nate and challenge audiences. Eagles' use of blood evokes reflections on the corporeal and the spiritual, on the scientific and the mystical, on mortality and regeneration. In MOCRA's unique former chapel space, these potent themes become particularly acute.

Even the very processes by which Eagles prepares his medium show a ritualistic sensibility. He uses various mark-making meth- ods, including layering the blood at different densities as well as burning and aging the material. Copper imparts a fiery energy to some works. Loosely woven gauze saturated with blood echoes burial cloths and ancient wrapping rituals. Decomposed blood is ground into dust and tossed into the works as a sign of passing and change. Transparent preserved blood works projected onto walls create immersive environments. The MOCRA exhibition in- cludes examples of all of these techniques. Highly textural and dimensional works will be presented in the side chapel galleries, while a site-specific installation of "blood illumination" pieces will be projected onto the walls and ceiling of MOCRA's balcony gallery. The centerpiece is the massive nine-panel, 32-foot-wide installation, BAR 1-9, on display in MOCRA's central nave gallery.

ABOUT JORDAN EAGLES

Jordan Eagles received his BA in Fine Arts/Media Studies from New York University's Gallatin School for Individualized Studies in 1999. Eagles has been profiled in TIME, The New York Times, FRAME, and The Huffington Post, and his work is found in nu- merous private and public collections, including the Peabody Es- sex Museum (Salem, MA), the Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ), the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, MI), and the Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY). His work has been shown at venues including the University of Michi- gan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT), the High Museum (Atlanta, GA), the Elmhurst Museum (Elmhurst, IL), the Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile, AL), Trinity Museum at Trinity Church, Wall Street (New York, NY) and the International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago, IL).

MOCRA thanks Causey Contemporary (New York) and Krause Gallery (New York) for their generous assistance in the organization of this exhibition.

Museum of Contemporary Religious Art(MOCRA) Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University's Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) is the world's first interfaith museum of contemporary art that engages religious and spiritual themes. MOCRA is dedicated to the ongoing dialogue between contemporary artists and the world's faith traditions, and to serving as a forum for interfaith understanding. In a time when religion is viewed by many in exclusive ways, MOCRA intends to be inclusive and embracing, a center for healing and reconciliation. to learn more about MOCRA's mission and history.

LOCATION:

3700 West Pine Blvd (a pedestrian mall) Saint Louis University

221 N. Grand Blvd.

St. Louis, MO  63103

HOURS:   

Tuesday - Sunday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.



Carri Skoczek's work in Seamless will include her linocuts of famous artists, writers and musicians.   Each portrait is based either loosely on an existing image of the individual or a composite image created by Carri but derived from multiple photographs of the person.  Each print is first exhibited as an artist's proof.  Then if more than one person desires the print, Carri will create a small edition of the work.
Ms. Skoczek says of her work that she has always been fascinated by portraiture and human behavior.   She believes both her prints and her paintings are a reflection of the world around her.

ABOUT CARRI SKOCZEK
Carri is  a painter, printmaker, costume designer and voodoo doll maker. She has  exhibited extensively for the last 23 years in Denver, CO; Milwaukee, WI; Santa Fe, NM; Chicago, IL; New Orleans, LA; Greece, Jamaica and New York City. Additionally, she was the resident costume designer for Theater X in Milwaukee for 12 years.  Carri traveled  in the Caribbean working on costumes for Carnival in Trinidad and Junkanoo in  the Bahamas.  She is also the curator of the annual Mermaid Show and a award winning participant in the Coney Island USA Mermaid Parade. Carri studied drawing and printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and graduated from the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in Denver, CO. She received a Wisconsin Arts Board Painting Fellowship in 1986. In 2008, she was selected for a two-person exhibition and catalogue at The Portrait Society in Milwaukee titled "Pin-Ups: Sixty Years of Feminine Posturing".   Her paintings and prints have been reviewed or featured by the Third Coast Digest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Brooklyn Rail and The Williamsburg Greenpoint Art and Newspaper  among others.

Dumois Gallery serves as a space for emerging and early mid-career artists to exhibit work.  The also serve as a space in which to bring conceptually based exhibitions to Uptown New Orleans.  Allowing the surrounding community to dialogue around art in an inviting atmosphere, the gallery believes adds positive energy to the New Orleans artscape.  Additionally the gallery offers workshops and classes to both children and adults to enhance other neighborhood offerings.

LOCATION:
4921 Ferret Street New Orleans, LA 70115

HOURS:
Saturdays 12 - 5 p.m. And by appointment
T:  504-818-6032