CPOP
4160 Woodward Ave.

Detroit, Mi 48201
313-833-9901

www.cpop.com
Nov 2 through Dec 29.


CPOP gallery space has taken on the atmosphere of a church. The exhibition within, “Milagros” (Spanish for Miracles) deals with the search to transcend our mortality and receive salvation. Milagros are traditionally little tokens to help aid in the healing of an injury or a sickness.





Christ Pantocrator (Lord Almighty)


Regular patrons of CPOP have a surprise in store for them, rather than images of superheroes, Marilyn or Madonna, or some combination of the three, viewers are confronted with images of Christ, St. Teresa and the Madonna on the walls of the lower gallery. These pieces are actually two bodies of work: “Miracles in Religion”, collected from Old World Masters, and “Treasures from Lithuania” which came from an exchange between CPOP and Lithuanian artists. The performance of miracles dominates the imagery on display.





“Blessed Mother”


The question of why this is on display at CPOP of all places, must be asked. What does centuries old religious imagery have to do with popular culture? Perhaps it was meant as a change, to shake things up at a gallery that might be becoming predictable. Perhaps there is a deeply personal need for CPOP’s curators to put these images on display. Or perhaps, this show gives recognition to pop culture of a previous time whose influence still persists today. Depictions of Jesus and the Madonna were a part of people’s homes as Elvis and Marilyn are today. The value of such works comes not in the brushwork or painterly innovation, but through the replication of the icon and the meaning such imagery brought for whoever found comfort in displaying it.





Daniel Martin Diaz “Sensus”


Upstairs things change again, as half of the gallery is devoted to the contemporary Latin art of Arizona artist Daniel Martin Diaz. Through woodcuts and paintings that look like they could have been done centuries ago rather than yesterday, Diaz furthers the replication of religious iconography from crucifixion to stigmata using it instead to shape his own personal exploration of death and religion. While very much working in a style reminiscent of the past, his modern sensibilities are unmistakable – it’s hard not to have thoughts of fractals when looking at the snaking root systems that weave through many of his pieces. Old table legs serve as frames, holding the pieces together on many levels of meaning. Through his artwork, Diaz continues to ask questions that his predecessors and ancestors have been asking for millennia - questions that still are lacking answers.





Diaz “Vena”


The most personal and powerful of the works on display in Milagros, is a collaborative installation between Vito Valdez and Mary Laredo created for those afflicted with breast cancer. The center of the installation is a shrine to the survivors and victims of the disease known as an ofrenda. The altar consists of candles, skulls, flowers, various images of the Virgin Mary among other things to create a feeling of celebration and hope even in the midst of loss.


Alongside the altar hangs an installation of cancer reports, breast x-rays, a lock of hair, rosethorns and Brussels sprouts. Together these elements serve as testimony to the trials of one’s body working against itself and the tribulations that constitute survival.


Also comprising the installation is a collection of Laredo’s metal sculptures – organic and often prickly vessels. These too display the internal conflict that cancer creates – as a bodies defenses work against its own survival. Valdez’s painting, “Primal Passage” is just that: a painting that really hits on the primal, the inexplicable, lower level response. It’s a moving experience - at once terrifically simple and abstract, yet filled with levels of depth and meaning. A video documents the daily vitamin and diet regimen of one afflicted with cancer – the ritual this woman undergoes to find health in sickness. The installation as a whole is a celebration of life in the midst of death. Valdez and Laredo have created an atmosphere that addresses what we find comfort in and where we find the strength to continue on in the face of loss and adversity.



The underlying source of our resilience in this installation runs throughout all the works in the show past and present. Milagros offers visitors the opportunity to get in touch with what others have found and explore their own source of hope in this unique offering.