Patricia M. Friend

Angels:  A Celestial Visitation

August 25 - October 3, 2008

An angel is defined as "a ministering spirit or divine messenger...of an order of spiritual beings superior to man in power and intelligence." - Oxford Dictionary 

The paintings in this exhibition of "Angels: A Celestial Visitation",  continue my ongoing search for beauty and truth, a personal vision  of love and purity in human form. Influenced by Medieval and Renaissance Art, I am challenged to explore the possibilities and variations of angelic forms in modern terms. Through the pictorial tools of color, pattern, light and space, each painting gives birth on canvas to a unique transformative experience for this artist, guided by the divine hand and an inner vision of these celestial beings. 

"The image of the Angel in art emerges from a creative interplay between traditional canons...and the personal vision of the artist....In the resonances created by this paradox, the Angel reveals itself." - Peter Lamborn Wilson, Angels, Thanes and Hudson, 1980,  p.28.

Patricia M. Friend

Curator’s Statement 
In popular culture, angels are often cute, insipid, domesticated. Not so Patricia Friend’s angels. Standing among them is like being in the midst of a vision or a dream. These angels seem familiar, yet strange, like an old friend that one hasn’t seen in a very long time, or like meeting someone famous for the first time. The sweet, pensive faces seem to come straight out of the Renaissance, or maybe some pre-Raphaelite stained glass window, but the rich, swirling, dancing layers of color could only have been painted by someone familiar with the Abstract Expressionists of the mid-20th century.  

Biblical scholars tells us that angels are messengers. Scripture is full of angels. They sit with God in the heavenly council. They appear to announce births and warn people of impending death. They come as night wrestlers, as travelers, as unannounced visitors. Sometimes they seem to be human. Sometimes they seem to be like God. When they come to bring good news, they tell us, “do not be afraid.”  

The angels in these paintings seem to have much the same ambiguous, numinous quality that they have in the familiar stories of scripture. At once still and in perpetual motion, at once solid and ephemeral, these angels shimmer with seemingly infinite depth. With the sureness of a lifetime of painting and the deep certainty of faith, Patricia Friend uses thin layers of brilliant color and well-disguised bits of magazine photos to invite us into a world where angels weep with compassion, contemplate eternal bliss, and remind us of the promise of hope.

Deborah Sokolove
Curator, Dadian Gallery