Featured Artworks
SEPTEMBER 8
Hildebrando de Melo (Angolan, born 1978)
Mustard (2018)(detail of triptych)
48 x 73.5 inches, acrylic and mixed media on canvas
Church History Museum
Hildebrando de Melo was born in Bailundo, Angola and trained in Portugal. This award-winning artist has shown his work in Angola, Portugal, Germany, India, in New York, and at the Venice Biennale in Italy.
Mustard was created during the first artist’s residency at the Center in preparation for the 2018 Mormon Arts Center Festival held at Columbia University. The New Testament parable of the mustard seed is evoked by the artist in this triptych. The connecting of architecture of the work is a brown/black figure, which represents the artist. Here, he is both the maker of something that has the potential to grow (like the mustard seed) and an individual that is growing. The collaged pages are from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Central African language of Kikongo, which was the first African language into which the Bible was translated.
The color yellow is also significant; historically, it is associated with madness. After his return to Angola and his growing reputation as an artist willing to call out political leaders for misdoings, the artist was abducted and forced into a mental institution. His emergence months later echoed in the mustard seed parable of survival and determined triumph over its harsh natural environment.
SEPTEMBER 1
Lacy Knudson (American, born 1982)
San Diego Temple Mural (2018)
Acrylic on wood panels, 9 x 18 feet
Used with permission of the artist
Lacy Knudson is an artist trained as a muralist. She lives in rural Virginia and works with clients on projects for schools, businesses, and homes. In 2018, Lacy was asked by girl’s camp organizers in Southern California for a paint project at a church-owned camp. Lacy writes about the mural, “This idea came to mind, and I felt the spirit help direct me for the way I should go about it. I created the design, numbered it, and mixed all the colors in large quantity; then I projected the image to trace the lines of the design. Once the lines and numbers were on the wall and the paint mixed and numbered, the girls could pick a section, find the matching paint number and get to work.”
The project was something that all of the stake camp girls could work on. The artist created a composition using iconic imagery from the San Diego area including the temple and the beautiful city it resides in. Over the course of a week, girls in groups of about 10 would come to the mural station and have a turn to beautify the camp. In all, around 160 girls worked on the piece. The artist adds, "For many of them it was their favorite activity at camp not only because it was fun but because it was a service that would make people happy to look at for years. The mural makes a wonderful visual improvement to the camp and is still there today bringing the spirit of the temple and an appreciation for the beauty of nature."
AUGUST 25
Daniel Beck (American, born 1996)
WAVES (2023)
Oil color pencil on acrylic ground on panel, 25 X 40 in
Courtesy of the artist
Daniel Beck finds divinity in the immeasurable variety of life, and practices spiritual optimism by cultivating an approach of constant learning and appreciation for what he observes. His works act as reliquaries for his subjects, aspiring to a spiritual dimension that encourages quiet meditation on the many facets of existence.
WAVES, a portrait of the artist’s mother, is an investigation on the continuity of self; many threads are carried through time, but their intersection finds an original circumstance at each moment. What life was lived before, and what was left behind? One version of the self conceals another, and the infinite sea of potentiality gives way to one actuality, one in succession after another.
AUGUST 18
Hilaida Miñoso (American, born 2000)
Las Cuatro Estaciones (The Four Seasons) (2022)
Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 72 inches
Used with permission of the artist
Hilaida Miñoso graduated from Caldwell University with a degree in art and psychology, specializing in art therapy. Her family is from the Dominican Republic. She grew up and lives in Paterson, New Jersey. Recently returned from missionary service in Costa Rica, Hilaida is pursuing a career as an artist and will also be furthering her education in graduate school as an art therapy student.
Hilaida describes Las Cuatro Estaciones, “This is a landscape painting that integrates the four seasons, starting with spring on the left to winter on the right side. As the seasons transition, the viewer sees plants and animals that represent each season. Ultimately this piece represents the beauty of adaptation and how nature always adapts, regardless of climate change. It is also a symbol of resilience. Regardless of the trials that we go through as human beings, we thrive and grow just like the cycle of the four seasons. While using natural elements and nature as the main subject, making art is meaningful to me because it is a way for me to express my deep appreciation for God’s creations. The art that I make consists of imagination-based dream worlds, which reflects my spirituality and faith. Through the use of color, texture, line, and movement, I am able to express my work and allow my inner-child to execute the painting.”
AUGUST 11
Jorge Cocco (Argentina, b. 1936)
The Call (2015)
oil on canvas, 30 in x 40 in
Used with permission of the artist
This piece, which won the purchase award at the Church History Museum’s international art competition in 2015, is the first work Cocco completed in his now signature sacrocubism style. The piece references the scriptural passage of Mark 1: 16-18, as the Savior called humble fisherman to be his disciples.
Cocco’s work was selected for the cover of the Center’s forthcoming volume with Oxford University Press, Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader.
Sunny K Jun (Korean, b. 1966)
ChakGaDo Series 1, 2 (Scholar’s Accoutrements Series 1, 2) (2010)
Sumi Chinese ink on Hanji (traditional Korean paper)
Used with permission of the artist
Sunny K Jun is a writer and artist from Korea. She studied traditional Korean folk art at Hongik University Art and Design Education Institute and at Gahoe Folk Painting Academy. Her published books are The Body, Things the Lion and the Mouse Never Considered Before (사자와 생쥐가 한번도 생각못한것들), and Chats with Lion (사자와 수다).
The Korean folk art paintings from her ChakGaDo Series, above, depict the study of a scholar in the Joseon Dynasty. It is full of symbols. Traditionally, rocks, turtles, pine trees, and peaches are symbols of longevity, and peonies symbolize happiness. Sunny, who joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1982, writes, “This painting is about diligently pursuing learning and truth and wishing for health, longevity, and happiness.”
JULY 28
AUGUST 4
Dellan Sithole (Zimbabwean, born 1999)
Rise of Africa (2024)
Oil on canvas, 60 cm x 100 cm
Used with permission of the artist
Dellan Sithole is a 25-year old artist from Zimbabwe. He is an intern at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and is studying for his Higher Diploma in Fine Art at the National Gallery School of Visual Arts. His work is inspired by the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He notes, “I love surreal work because it gives me the freedom to imagine and put it on canvas through the power of imagination. My work tell stories that people can relate to. Not only do they tell of the physical but also celestial as I try to depict the spirituality of life eternal.”
Describing the painting above, Sithole writes, “It's a painting in my future exhibition, and it's called Rise of Africa. It talks about how Africa has a guardian angel protecting and looking after it. The whole exhibition circulates around this painting. Africa is a land of minerals, fertile soils, and more that we cannot comprehend as humans. Therefore I put playgrounds in it, tall skyscrapers, trees, gold, even technology. That blue building generates gravity that is why the cars within the continent are not falling. It has its own gravity and it's skyrocketing because I am showing how it has so much potential. The Angel is a pregnant woman as well. She will give birth to the heir who will also protect Africa.”
JULY 21
Avril Caron (French Canadian, born 1980)
On my knees I can see forever (2022)
Acrylic on wood and sewing patterns, 10 x 27 inches
https://www.avrilcaron.com/
While Avril was serving as a missionary, she was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that left her in chronic pain and with no hope of recovery. In this intense period, her paintings became colorful, strong, and full of faith. The painted illusions became a reality when she was miraculously healed. Since then, Avril has devoted her work to testifying of God's power and love. She painted “On my knees I can see forever” to show that so many times the solution to problems are found in a plea to God. The fog and confusion disappear as you let God enter and see the way He has prepared (1 Nephi 17:13). The character in her painting has one hand raised high to give thanks to her Maker, and another inclined ready to humbly receive. Sewing patterns are also found with selected words and markings.
JULY 14
Madeline Rupard (American)
Mormon Easter (2022)
Acrylic on paper, mounted on panel, 9 x 12 inches
Private collection
Circular folded tables, white tablecloths, and textured walls are materials common to most Latter-day Saint chapels, but here Rupard uses them to visualize a scene from the New Testament, where the stone is rolled away from the sepulchermadd to reveal Christ’s empty tomb on Easter morning. Using everyday materials to describe such a spiritually profound moment creates a paradox that Rupard calls the “paradox of divine truth to be found in artificial, prefabricated spaces in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” The uniformity of Latter-day Saint places of worship may be utilitarian. Still, as Rupard demonstrates, the visual simplicity of these spaces conceals a deeper spiritual complexity and experience that many Latter-day Saints share. Even the most mundane objects can acquire sacred meaning, as Rupard says, “If I really believe that God exists and that He loves us very much, every painting is an Easter painting.”
JULY 7
Amber Lee Ramos (American)
Doctrine & Covenants 60, 2021
Hand-cut Paper Collage
Courtesy of the artist
Doctrine and Covenants is a compilation of revelations and sacred scripture in the Latter-day Saint faith. In the 60th section, the prophet Joseph Smith records a revelation given to him in August 1831 where he was told to open his mouth, not hide the talents and gifts he received, and to be unafraid of the judgments of men as he shared his testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Ramos takes Smith’s revelation to heart, using symbols to communicate her experience reading the verses. The shovel represents her commitment to sharing Heavenly Father’s love with those around her. The jewels represent the talents, testimonies, and authenticity she shares with others, and the Latter-day Saint temple under construction demonstrates her never-ending pursuit of spiritual strength.
Ramos also reflects on the Latter-day Saint belief that bodies are temples and sacred spaces of divine potential. By attaching feminine legs to the temple at its base, she playfully acknowledges this belief while also reckoning with what she calls “the prejudices I had against my own body.” Temples appear frequently in Ramos’ work as anthropomorphic forms in her collages.
JUNE 30
Kent Christensen (American, born 1957)
Secrets of the Great Salt Lake, 2019
Oil on linen
Courtesy of Jeffrey S. Tolk & Astrid S. Tuminez
Known for his playful representations of some of the sweet things in life—ice cream, cookies, Diet Coke—artist Kent Christensen applies his whimsical approach to his triptych Secrets of the Great Salt Lake. Filled with representations of significant people, places, and objects related to Utah, the center of Mormondom, the artwork is nothing short of an ode to a place beloved by the artist.
At the center of Secrets of the Great Salt Lake stands a cotton-candy pink rendering of the LDS Salt Lake Temple, one of the state’s most important landmarks. On the horizon line is a multi-car train—a nod to the first transcontinental railroad that met at Promontory Point. An enormous dinosaur stands as a reminder of the state’s geological significance, with the Church’s second president, Brigham Young, sitting astride a smaller one. Other significant places are invoked in the foreground, such as the otherworldly red-rocked landscape of southern Utah and Robert Smithson’s earthwork, Spiral Jetty, where the natural rocks are replaced with candy confections.
Concerning the inception of this piece, Christensen writes: “I conceived this triptych over the course of many years as a personal piece that would address aspects of my own personal and family history as well as broader issues around Utah culture and the historical arc of “progress” with its attendant political, religious, and societal complications. I had always been fascinated by the triptych painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch since seeing it as a young study abroad student in 1981.”
JUNE 23
Ron Linn (American, born 1997)
hraun i (bed), documentation of presence (2016)
Inkjet print on newsprint, 25 x 37 inches
Used with permission of the artist
"Geology is a palimpsest; it contains the trace of its own making in its layers. Are we also palimpsests? Don't we live ourselves in layers and stacks?”
Linn’s self-portrait ponders the relationship between man and nature. Positioning his body within the soft, undulating landscape of Iceland’s lava fields, his peaceful repose matches the mossy curves of the terrain, layering his human form within the land’s geology. Such a tranquil scene of human rest captures the briefest moment within the long and violent history of volcanic activity that created Iceland’s lava fields and is a common theme within Linn’s work. From ancient, old-growth forests in Oregon to the sandstone deserts of Utah, Linn uses these topographies to consider his place within the fabric of the natural world and the human experience as one layer within the vast geological history of the earth.
JUNE 16
Aïsha Lehmann (American, born 1997)
All Alike? (2021)
Ink, collage, and graphite, 11.5 x 37.5 x 2 inches
Church History Museum collection
An anonymous crowd moves right and left across an indeterminate space. Several figures stop and face forward. Their direct gazes, dark complexions, and patterned clothing separate them from the rest of the crowd who pass by unhindered behind them. All Alike? developed through Lehman’s personal interest in racial identities and the past racial teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Between 1852 and 1978, Black Latter-day Saint men were ineligible for priesthood ordination, and the legacy of this policy remains omnipresent for members of color. Here, the static poses of the Black figures visualize the mental effort required to reconcile past racial teachings with more loving doctrines of inclusion in the Church, an experience common among members of color. Lehman’s work thus illustrates Nephi’s claim in the Book of Mormon.
“For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” (2 Nephi 26:33)
