American Visionary Art Museum's THE VISIONARY EXPERIENCE: Saint Francis to Finster

BALTIMORE - Sept. 8, 2014 - PRLog -- The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM)’s 20th original thematic exhibition hails the great dreamers and doers throughout history, exploring the astonishing visions of Hildegard von Bingen and Leonardo da Vinci, to Nikola Tesla and Philip K. Dick, as we pay tribute to the ecstatic “Aha!” and “Eureka!” moments that propel discovery, leaps in consciousness, and cultural renewal. The Visionary Experience: Saint Francis to Finster examines the human impulse to forge a path out of darkness into illumination, as well as the duality and complexity of vision, from radical clarity to unfettered delusion, and the legacy of visionary experiences throughout time.

Guest curator, acclaimed filmmaker and book publisher Jodi Wille, and AVAM founder and director Rebecca Alban Hoffberger have together assembled a diverse and wildly transcendent collection of artists, scientists, philosophers, and spiritual pioneers who have ventured straight to the source of inspiration itself.

In anticipation of his centennial birthday celebration, The Visionary Experience includes a lifetime of visions in paint, and the process of the most acclaimed intuitive artist of the 20th century, Rev. Howard Finster. Other works include Paolo Soleri’s macrocosmic architectural visions for an ecology-based urban future, exhibited for the first time on the East Coast since his landmark 1970s exhibitions at The Corcoran Gallery and The Whitney Museum; Robert Crumb’s reverential re-telling of the life-altering visionary experience of sci-fi icon Philip K. Dick; never-before-exhibited cosmic drawings by Jimi Hendrix; photographer Paul Koudounaris’ stunning, larger-than-life images of ornately bejeweled skeletons of medieval Catholic saints; and the first major museum display of the giant, multi-dimensional visualizations of author, psychic, and co-creator of the U.S. government’s remote viewing program, Ingo Swann.

Visitors will also experience firsthand a free energy device designed by scientist John Worrell Keely and built by artist Dale Pond, the interactive Dynasphere—a functional sculpture that emits “love vibrations, powered only by the currents of the universe.” The exhibit will also explore inventive new spiritual groups and their leaders, including Uriel of Unarius Academy of Science, and Father Yod and The Source Family.

The Visionary Experience exists out of and above the influence of time or place, socioeconomic background, age, race or gender. It is a path ancient and modern, futuristic and primitive. Within this experience, discovery can be found down the road to Damascus, inside the depths of the cave of Athena, via the power of music, intoxicants, spiritual emergency, meditation or prayer. The touch of grace, the whisper of the muse and the still small voice beckon, offering the traveler transportive visions: personal, cultural, and cosmic.

EXHIBITION DATES:
* Media Preview: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 • 10am—12:30pm • RSVP to Media Contact (below)
* Exhibition Preview Party: Thursday, October 2, 2014 • 7-10pm • General: $20, AVAM Members: Free • full event details & ticket links @ avam.org
* Exhibition Opens to the Public: Saturday, October 4, 2014 & runs through Sunday, August 30, 2015

ABOUT THE CURATORS:
Critically-acclaimed filmmaker, publisher, ardent documentarian of all things fringe, Jodi Wille first met famed visionary artist Rev. Howard Finster in his Paradise Garden back in 1988. Based in Los Angeles, Wille has been a devoted fan and frequent visitor of the American Visionary Art Museum since 1998 when she first met Rebecca Hoffberger, and edited and published the award-winning catalog, The End Is Near!, for AVAM’s eponymous exhibition. Wille is known for her work exploring American subcultures through collaborations with self-taught artists and new religious groups, and is co-founder of book publishing companies Dilettante Press and Process Media. She has documented a number of visionary artists over the years, and her recent feature-length documentary on the fabled ‘70s Los Angeles utopian commune The Source Family (2012) sold-out several major film festivals and premiered theatrically in 60 cities.

Rebecca Alban Hoffberger founded the American Visionary Art Museum in 1989, and has since served as director, as well as curator for several of the museum’s most acclaimed exhibitions, including All Faiths Beautiful, The Art of Storytelling: Lies, Enchantment, Humor & Truth, and the current exhibition, Human, Soul and Machine: The Coming Singularity!

American Visionary Art Museum • 800 Key Highway • Baltimore, Maryland • 21230 • USA • 410.244.1900 • avam.org