Alex Grey: Spirit Expressed Into Matter
Best known for his paintings of vibrantly colored human bodies, and his intricate album artwork created for rock band, Tool’s, third EP Laterlaus, artist Alex Grey takes painting beyond the canvas, and into the soul. The spiritual artist, whose works can be seen in New York City in the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, says that love is the basis of his belief system.
Every moment is an opportunity for love and transformation.
Using every medium he can to promote unity between creativity and spirituality, Grey takes the onlooker on a spiritual journey through levels of chakras, revealing personal auras. His paintings elucidate several layers of reality from a complex belief system that integrates mind, body, soul, and spirit. Grey, although known for his paintings, is invariably an artist at every level, as a painter, philosopher, and aspiring architect.
With its temporary home in Chelsea, The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors is a temple of wisdom containing four separate areas of artwork; “a living brochure,” as Grey puts it. With the Sacred Mirrors in one room, the Progress of Soul in a second, Transfiguration Paintings in the third, and a fourth room for art that inspires social action, the migration through the rooms is a journey. A late 1800s brick carriage home is under renovation to house the Chapel in its second phase of an ongoing transformation, which will continue until an enduring temple is built. The final resting place of the Chapel will be “designed specifically for the collection, reflecting the principles and worldview of the art that has become a context for a spiritual community,” Grey explains. It will be built to include eco-sustainability, will welcome all wisdom-traditions, and integrate motifs from various cultures.
Immerse yourself in solving big problems.
Even with the task of designing an architectural spiritual stronghold, Grey says he also hopes to create a film based on translucency and the evolution of consciousness within the individual and within our species. He is committed to his art through his beliefs, and entertains the notion that “committing oneself to realizing the soul’s mission in life can serve humanity and God, and can provide the best life ever.”
Surrender to love.
Anjuli Bhattacharyya
