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![Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World](/mocra/_img/regina-deluise-monks-practicing-720-min.jpg)
Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World
January 24, 2015 to May 10, 2015
The images in this exhibition, taken in Thimpu, Bhutan in 2010, center on the ordinary surroundings of a culture both remarkable and mysterious (Bhutan only opened its borders in the 1950s and still strongly restricts tourism). Bhutan’s history is intricately woven with Tibetan Buddhism. There is little separation: Monks and lamas are a vibrant and integral part of the community, elders spend their days in prayer, young and old make their pilgrimage to monasteries that seem to hang from the sides of mountains. The idea of devotion in every aspect of one's life is not exotic or unrealistic.
While planning a sabbatical, artist Regina DeLuise was captivated by both the natural beauty of the Bhutanese landscape and the Bhutanese government’s interest in measuring the country’s Gross National Happiness. Through the Bhutan Foundation, she was introduced to Voluntary Artists’ Studio, Thimphu, popularly known as VAST, which seeks to provide Bhutanese youth with opportunities to develop vocational skills, share social responsibilities, and interact with the national and international art realm. During her extended seven-week sojourn in Bhutan, recalls DeLuise, “I was very fortunate to be welcomed into this remarkable group of artists, mentoring and teaching children about all aspects of creative living.”
DeLuise’s photos attend to the material aspects of a spiritual life. Continuing her investigation into the mundane and sublime aspects of her surroundings, with light as her central theme, the generosity of the culture is at the heart of this work. DeLuise says, “Young artists, monks and ‘householders’ welcomed me into their lives to document and explore a culture so different from my own.”
Regina DeLuise was born in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MA from Rosary College, Graduate School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993. Her work is in the collection of a number of major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Presently DeLuise serves as the Chair of Photography at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, MD. DeLuise has worked as far abroad as Italy, India, Nepal, and, most recently Thimphu, Bhutan. Light is at the heart of DeLuise’s practice, whether she is photographing the body, a landscape, or a still life. In addition to palladium prints, over the last few years she has begun producing archival ink jet prints from her 8×10 negatives, intrigued by the larger image and the access it offers the viewer.
“The physical nature of working with an 8×10 view camera places me solidly in the physical world. The palladium print is another layer of the sensual and tactile reality that has always been at the heart of my work.”
above:
Regina DeLuise, Monks Practicing, Thimphu, Bhutan, 2010. Archival pigment print. MOCRA collection. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Exhibition |
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![]() Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Erika Diettes: Sudarios |
![]() Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World |
![]() Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu |
![]() Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade |
![]() Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi |
![]() Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT |
![]() Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade |
![]() Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah |
![]() A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown |
![]() Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting |
![]() Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion |
![]() Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art |
![]() James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer |
![]() MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday |
![]() Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears |
![]() Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace |
![]() MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit |
![]() Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit |
![]() The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture |
![]() Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937 |
![]() Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds |
![]() Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness |
![]() DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea |
![]() Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria |
![]() Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl |
![]() Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen |
![]() Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn |
![]() Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |
![]() Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation |
![]() Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration |
![]() Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana |
![]() Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995 |
![]() Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium |
![]() Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses |
![]() MOCRA: The First Five Years |
![]() Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones |
![]() Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections |
![]() Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem |
![]() Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece |
![]() Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter |
![]() Consecrations Revisited |
![]() Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ |
![]() Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994 |
![]() Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective |
![]() Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists |
![]() Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS |
![]() Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One |
![]() Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
![]() Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Visible Conservation |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations |
![]() Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition |
![]() MOCRA: 25 |
![]() Gary Logan: Elements |
![]() Gratitude |
![]() Surface to Source |
![]() Quiet Isn't Always Peace |
![]() Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings |
![]() Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections |
![]() Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest |
![]() Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE |
![]() This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos |
![]() Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual |
![]() Selections from the MOCRA Collection |