Making Art With The Animals at The Armory Show in New York City

Coming Full Circle – Making Art With The Animals

I am over the moon grateful and excited! I am going to New York City to talk to the animals and their humans at one of the nation’s premiere art fairs – The Armory Show – March 5 through March 8, 2020!

According to The Armory Show’s website, “The Armory Show is New York City’s premier art fair and a leading cultural destination for discovering and collecting the world’s most important 20th- and 21st-century art. The Armory Show features presentations by leading international galleries, innovative artist commissions, and dynamic public programs. Since its founding in 1994, The Armory Show has served as a nexus for the art world, inspiring dialogue, discovery, and patronage in the visual arts.”

Represented by Carrie Secrist Gallery, I will be collaborating with Chicago-based artist, Adrian Wong. According to the gallery’s press release, “Carrie Secrist Gallery is pleased to announce our solo booth presentation of recent (and still to be realized) artworks by Adrian Wong at the 2020 Edition of The Armory Show from March 5 to 8, 2020 in New York City.

In response to Focus Curator Jamillah James’s direction to “consider the ways in which artists construct a version of reality or self where the boundaries of fact and fiction are indistinct…”, Secrist Gallery’s booth will be divided into two parts that share and amplify this curatorial theme. The first room will present a selection of recent sculptures, photographs and paintings that Adrian Wong developed in collaboration with Lynn Schuster, a telepathic animal communicator. Then, passing through an archway, fair goers will encounter a portrait salon that will function as a “reading room”.

Over the course of the fair, Wong and Schuster will be on-site, during scheduled periods, to offer telepathic readings of fair goers’ pets (living or past). These readings may later be used to produce commissioned artworks similar to those in the booth, exclusively available during The Armory Show.

Options will include:
A custom piece of furniture / personalized habitat designed by the animal (i.e. a dog house, cat tree, terrarium, etc.)
A painted portrait of one of the animal’s past lives.
A cosmic geometry wall installation derived from the animal’s spirit.

The body of work on view—and limited series of commissions—propose a vast array of visual realities which may offer conceptual challenges to some, cosmic comfort to others…with a wide (Rainbow) Bridge in between…

…Wong’s practice took a personal turn when creating new works for a 2019 exhibition at Carrie Secrist Gallery. On the day he returned from a trip abroad, his beloved rabbit Omar passed suddenly. Wong used his conceptual practice to move through the grief by creating works in collaboration with Omar via conversations with Lynn Schuster, a renowned animal communication expert whose mission is to “help strengthen the bond between animals and their human families. [And] to create a safe environment to connect, communicate and advocate the needs, wants and desires for both animals and their guardians.” The resulting artworks included a 9-foot kitty condo—its design led by Snoopy, revealed to have been the artist’s wife’s childhood cat who later reincarnated as the recently deceased Omar. This work, The House that Snoopy Built, will be on view alongside several cosmic geometries revealed by Omar and portraits of his past lives painted by artists from all over the country (under the direction of Ms. Schuster and Mr. Wong).

Mirroring the journey of the artist to realize the works on view, fair-goers will have the rare opportunity to participate in the process themselves with Ms. Schuster and Mr. Wong at the Armory Show. These sessions will offer fairgoers a deeper understanding of the psyches of their non-human companions, and the resulting artworks will serve as a record of any specific details the readings may reveal.”

(read the entire press release here: https://www.secristgallery.com/exhibitions/2020/the-armory-show-2020-adrian-wong/)

How did the Universe conspire to make all this happen?

In August, 2019, Adrian was looking for an animal communicator. He came across my website, he contacted me. I was intrigued by his proposal: “Due to the potential for animal spirits to be reincarnated as different species, I am currently seeking a cat with experience having lived as another type of animal. What I’d like to propose to this cat is the opportunity to design a custom “kitty condo,” which I would build for them—the more extravagant the better, reflecting on the memories of their past lives. This design would not have any restrictions, and I would do my best to remain as faithful to their design as possible (with creative license reserved in the case of unspecified details or practical considerations). As I am not a cat owner, I was further hoping that you might know a cat whose owner I could contact for permission to participate. If you know more than one cat, that would be even better!”

It’s perfect! I’ve got cats, I’m an animal communicator and I’m an artist. But, before I could interview my cats or any other cats about their past lives, Adrian contacted me again, this time with the devastating news that Omar, his family’s beloved rabbit had transitioned.

During a session with Adrian’s family and Omar, Omar revealed to me that he indeed has had several past lives. As I was talking to Omar, I saw many animals of different species lined up behind him. The fourth animal in line, a black and white tuxedo cat, stepped out and to the left of the line. Adrian’s wife gasped and wondered if this cat could be her childhood cat, Snoopy, and indeed he was.

Of course Snoopy would be our guide in creating the Kitty Condo. He would also be the muse for several other pieces created by Adrian Wong for the show.

(You can read the details in my blog entitled “The House That Snoopy Built”
https://animalspirittalker.com/blog/the-house-that-snoopy-built/)

On September 14, 2019, My friend Sue Powers and I made the trip from Door County, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois for the opening reception of Adrian Wong’s Solo Exhibition, “Crossing the Rainbow Bridge.” There, we had the honor of meeting Carrie Secrist, the owner of Carrie Secrist Gallery. Through many conversations between Carrie and Adrian, Carrie decided to take Adrian’s show to New York.

Since then, Adrian has hired four animal portrait artists. Through the direction of Adrian and I, these four artists are painting portraits of the other animals that I saw in line behind Omar. Each artist had a session with me and Omar told me more about his past lives.

Represented in the show will be:
Guinea Pig, breed unknown, “Henry Ford” (He woke me up one morning to tell me his name.)
Domestic Grade Horse
Yorkshire Hog
Piebald Cat, breed unknown, “Snoopy”
Black Labrador Mix, name unknown
Rabbit, breed /name unknown (He’s a wild rabbit)
Cheetah (possibly Leopard)
Lion
Zebra

We never know where this life will take us. In 1980, when I graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in Fine Art, I made a pact with myself. “I will be making my living as an artist by 1990.” Although that did come true, (I had a small shop called FiberWorks from May of 1990 to October of 1996) this experience feels so much richer! Life is good!

Photos curtesy of Carrie Secrist Gallery