Jonanthan Rogers was in a joking mood when he said it would be cool to have an ambulance waiting at the preview of his new exhibit — just in case somebody needs immediate medical attention.
That idea is surely over the top, but the exhibit may well get people’s hearts racing. In fact, there will be a medical testing device available to determine people’s physiological response to the preview of a new series by the venerable Niagara Falls artist.
Certainly, if anyone’s art can get people’s pulse rates up, it’s Rogers’.
His life, as documented in his past work, has been a roller coaster of experience, starting with his childhood abuse at the hands of a religious cult in Canada. Later, there was acclaim in Hollywood, where he worked as an animator and filmmaker before he sank to the depths of despair and contemplated suicide. And last, there was his revival in a 10-step program and relatively happy, or at least comfortable, landing in Niagara Falls. Some of the resulting artwork detailing aspects of his life has been shown at esteemed galleries including the Albright-Knox and the Castellani.
Now, in his early 70s, Rogers has spent the past six months creating an exhibit that expresses the breadth of his adulthood in quick time. The exhibit, “Racing Death,” will be previewed Saturday at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center in Niagara Falls.
It will be the first look at his newest drawings and paintings, each depicting a single human in all manner of speed and expressing a gamut of emotions from joy to despair to rage and triumph.
Rogers, interviewed this week in his fourth-floor studio at the NACC, said he was told recently by a California art expert that the exhibit got viewers’ pulses racing. So Rogers tested guests in his studio.
“Seven of eight people who have sat in these chairs have checked their own pulse and said, ‘Wow, it’s noticeable,’ ” he said, gesturing to the comfortable chairs in his workspace.
In the preview of his work Saturday, he is requesting that visitors take a heart rate test before and after viewing his 38- piece collection to see if the deeply emotional series can hike a pulse rate.
“If it does,” said Rogers, with his overwhelming youthful enthusiasm, “I’m going to promote the bejesus out of it.”
To an observer familiar with his works, the new pieces look like the product of a man seeking to portray all parts of his diverse adulthood but offering one new aspect — ferociousness.
When questioned about this, Rogers seems content with the analogy that the exhibit exposes a man living fully expressed.
John Aaron Malone, an art critic from Escondido, Calif., who was the first to encourage Rogers to show “Racing Death,” compares Rogers to Jackson Pollock.
“If Pollock could have connected with his own inner turbulence with this degree of comprehension, dare we imagine that he might have lived longer than he did,” Malone wrote of Rogers.
“This is pop art with a vengeance,” Malone added.
Whatever it is, Rogers is not yet done examining his long life. There are more paintings coming, of that he is certain. “I’m trying to get satisfaction before I die,” he said.
What will satisfy him? “It’s hard to predict,” he said. “We don’t always know these things.”
One thing is for certain: Rogers will continue to try to understand his own life. “Racing Death” is only the name of his upcoming show, but it could also be his anthem.
Art
Related Photos
-
Photo by James Neiss/Staff Photographer. Niagara Fall's artist Jonathan Rogers feels his pulse, in keeping with the claims that his new exhibit may get people's pulses racing
Related Links
February 5, 2009
WARNING: ‘Racing Death’ may speed your pulse.
- Art
-
-
LIFESTYLE: Make art part of Syracuse trip
I am not an art critic. I can’t pick out a Renoir from a Michelangelo to save my life, nor can I even define what the Impressionist period is.
But I know what I like. And I like the Everson Museum of Art. -
ART: The NACC presents Holiday Extravaganza, "Artists and Friends"
Rachel Schiff was hanging her jewel-toned paintings in the Garden Gallery, admiring the soft light coming in from the giant windows and the beautiful marble floors.
-
MUSIC: The songs (and paintings) of Ron Hawkins
A lot of things have changed since Ron Hawkins was on the stage at Gateway Harbor in North Tonawanda in 2006.
-
ART: Buffalo Society of Artists show hits Kenan Center
The Buffalo Society of Artists is reaching out.
-
ART: Warhol photo collection comes to Castellani
"In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.”
-
ART: The Lewiston Art Festival
In nearly every way, the Lewiston Art Festival is growing.
-
LIFESTYLE: 'Body Worlds' challenges the mind, heart
The “Body Worlds” exhibit was created as a vehicle for science, but it has stirred up emotions of a far different sort in pretty much every city that it’s visited.
-
ART: NACC goes "Beyond the Barrel"
The Niagara Arts and Cultural Center typically opens its “Beyond the Barrel” art exhibition at the end of June, but this year presented an opportunity that NACC staff couldn’t pass up.
-
ART: 100 American Craftsmen descend on Lockport
There will be art you can wear, art you can clean with and art you can drink from.
-
ART: Jed Jackson returns for exhibit
Thus, while the campus rocks this weekend, the Castellani will present the opening of “JED: 30 Years of Painting by Jed Jackson.”
- More Art Headlines
-
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
Raw Video: Fight Erupts in Ukrainian Parliament
Texan Ranchers Remain Wary of Drought
Raw Video: Soldiers Plant Flags at Arlington
Police: Man Arrested in Etan Patz Disappearance
NYC Protests: the Revolution Will Be Scripted
Chicago U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald Resigns
