While the completion of the fresco at Haywood Street mission congregation remains a few years away, the nonprofit recently acquired the life works of painter Rob Rikoon. The artist, who divides his time between Asheville and Santa Fe, N.M., spent 18 years creating the egg tempera series The Liminal State Panels.
The four pieces — “Suffering,” “Liberation,” “Self-Imprisonment,” and “The Path to Freedom” — are now on display inside the church. On Friday, May 18, an opening reception will be held to celebrate the donation.
“This is a raw place; there’s no polish on what we do here,” says Pastor Brian Combs. “There’s something appropriate about having the gambit of emotion one might feel as a human being all displayed here in Rob’s works.”
Rikoon considers the church an ideal landing place for his series. “I really wanted this to be my gift to the people,” he says. But in no way was it a premeditated act. “There are things that you wait for the universe to unfold and let happen, and that’s kind of my approach to art and how these things came to the church,” Rikoon says.
WHAT: The Liminal State Panels opening reception
WHERE: Haywood Street Congregation, 297 Haywood St. haywoodstreet.org
WHEN: Friday, May 18, 4-7 p.m. Free
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