Love: The First of the 7 Virtues


Love: The First of the 7 Virtues
Opening reception: Sat, February 14th, 5 – 7 PM
Exhibition dates: February 14th- December 6, 2015

It is with great enthusiasm that HVCCA launches a year of exhibitions and education programs exploring the artistic representation of Love: The First of the 7 Virtues and its antithesis, Seven Deadly Sins: Lust (scheduled to open April 19, 2015). Developed as an FWMA (Fairfield Westchester Museum Alliance) collaboration, each museum will explore a different sin and, in some instances, its parallel virtue.

The concepts of ‘Virtue’ and ‘Sin’ emerge from a theological exploration of the good and evil that drive human behavior. Love, when it is the operative and dominant emotion, can mute those drives which lead human beings to be greedy, gluttonous, avaricious and lustful. Though chastity is technically the foil for lust, chastity implies specific sexual infractions, whereas love is much broader in scope.

Love takes many forms, but in the 20th-21st centuries varying kinds of love are more overt in presentation and more openly discussed. Love involves heterosexual, homosexual and transsexual relationships; it speaks to inter- family relationships; love can involve an adoration and anthropomorphic view of nature; love of God and religious devotion can carry the intensity of emotion, comparable to the strongest of human relationships, and love of animals can sometimes go well beyond those of an inter-human nature.

From Robert Indiana’s iconic sculpture that manifests the power of the word ‘LOVE’ to the poignant red roses of Jackie O. in the sculpture of Keith Edmier, from the bucolic scenes of Hernan Bas and the empathic painting of Richard Wathen to the religiously charged work of Djordje Ozbolt, HVCCA invites the viewer to walk through the power of LOVE to build bridges to understanding and to an appreciation for the diversity of human nature.

Artists included in the exhibition are drawn from communities around the globe:
Thordis Adalsteinsdottir, Emil Alzamora, Matthew Barney, Hernan Bas, Marius Bercea, Derek Boshier, Birgit Brenner, Skyler Brickley, Ross Chisholm, Debbie Davis, Keith Edmier, Carole Feuerman, Moyna Flannigan, Stefanie Gutheil, Dieter Hacker, Bendix Harms, Ridley Howard, Robert Indiana, Sam Jinks, Sherry Kerlin, Keegan Korchuk, Charles LeDray, Marin Majic, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nick Mauss, Shirin Neshat, Jonathan Newman, John Newsom, Joel Otterson, Djordje Ozbolt, Paul Pretzer, Saul Raskin, Nathan Ritterpusch, Christoph Ruckhäberle, Athi-Patra Ruga, Helen Sadler, Maria Tomasula, and Richard Wathen.

Event Location and Ticket Information

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HVCCA
1701 Main Street
Peekskill, NY 10556
Handicap Accessible? Yes

Date: Friday, May 1, 2015
Times: 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Ticket pricing:
Free event

Presenter: Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art