New BYU exhibit reveals an LDS artist who seeks truth, not converts

Provo • There is humor in holiness, says Utah artist Brian Kershisnik, and holiness in humor.

Life is often agonizingly complex and confusing, yet even in darkly serious moments, the painter says, “I believe in a God who laughs.”

That could be why so many of Kershisnik’s pieces seem surprising, even unsettling, like joking about caskets.

Take “Jesus and the Angry Babies,” one of the 100 pieces in the newly opened exhibit of his work at Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art.

Painting a traditional Jesus surrounded by cherubic, well-behaved children, gazing at him in serene adoration “isn’t just silly,” Kershisnik says in an interview. “It’s the wrong metaphor for God’s unruly interactions with humanity.”

Similar unexpectedness is on display in the exhibit, “The Difficult Part: Brian Kershisnik, A Mid-Career Retrospective,” which features original paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures from the past 30 years of the artist’s body of work, including several created for this presentation.

One of the most beloved and popular contemporary artists of Utah and the Mountain West, Kershisnik has “captured the hearts and inspired viewers around the world,” Mark Magleby, emeritus curator of the show, writes in the catalog.

His work is found in many private collections as well as permanent ones beyond BYU, including the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts and Education Complex at the University of Utah, the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City and the Springville Museum of Art.

A prolific artist, Kershisnik works “on dozens of canvases at one time,” Magleby writes. “He paints on average 80 to 100 works each year and thus far has created approximately 4,000 works.”

Ideas for paintings “come to him during the course of his everyday experiences and may be inspired by simple conversations or certain phrases,” writes Magleby, a longtime friend of the artist. “Indeed, the titles are a crucial part of each work, helping to illuminate the narrative in both humorous and profound ways.”

The show is divided into three main themes — death and woundedness, holy women, and young immortals — which illustrate Kershisnik’s recognizable playful pairings as well as new images of loss, hardship, agony, grief and death.

Angels are frequent characters in these works — celebrating, grieving, whispering to and tugging on humans, and, sometimes, covering their mouths.

“Through it all, Kershisnik infuses his work with a deep spirituality,” says BYU curator Janalee Emmer, “conveying that heavenly help is often closer than we imagine.”

Mostly the human figures don’t recognize it, she says, but, “in Brian’s world,” it is part of their story.

Reimagining biblical texts

Among the most provocative of Kershisnik’s paintings probe familiar Bible stories to find their sometimes-hidden meanings.

His “Ten Lepers,” “Christ Healing the Blind Man,” “Jacob Wrestling the Angel,” and the wrenching portrait of the “Massacre of the Innocents,” all offer startlingly fresh ideas.

Two pieces portray the “Good Samaritan” parable from the New Testament — that is the title of one, while its companion work is called “On the Road to Jericho.”

Jesus never named it “the good Samaritan,” Kershisnik says. “That would be like saying ‘the good Mexican.’ Only later writers used that term.”

In this rendition, the artist has imagined darker-skinned helpers and “white” victims, turning the story on its head from the traditional understanding of most Western believers.

One of Emmer’s favorites is “Harrowing of Hell,” a massive new painting that draws Christ in the center, while forcing the jaws of death open with his cross.

It is darker and more sobering, she says, than some of his more joyful creations but still reflects hope.

The curator also is moved by a life-size bronze sculpture that “depicts a man and a woman, acrobatically balancing and complementing one another,” she says. “They are interdependent. It suggests the kind of complicated but beautiful balance that must exist in all meaningful relationships.”

One of the largest, newest and most timely Kershisnik paintings is called, “après la guerre,” which shows two groups coming together after a battle.

“Some embrace, while others approach each other more cautiously,” Emmer says. “It is a hopeful scene of healing, with peoples of different cultures, races and ages coming together in harmony.”

It is, she says, “a monumentally scaled painting, that also introduces an equally large idea.”

Seeking truth, not converts

Kershisnik is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is not shy about acknowledging his faith, but he worries about being pigeonholed as a “Mormon painter.”

The artist, who lives in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighborhood, was born in Oklahoma City, but he moved with his family to Angola, Thailand, Texas and Pakistan, due to his father’s career as a petroleum geologist.

He has drawn inspiration for his art from Buddhist texts and ancient lore as well as Christian scripture.

And he hopes those of all faiths — or no faiths — can find resonance in his work, especially pieces like “Empathy.”

“Most of what we have in religion is kind of like a parent telling a 4-year-old where babies come from,” Kershisnik writes in the catalog. “It’s a start, but it’s not complete.”

For him, art provides a chance “to more fully understand others, myself and God,” he adds.”...It should remind us of what we have forgotten, illuminate what we know, and teach us new things.”

In the end, Kershisnik approaches a canvas “with more question marks than answers,” he says. It’s not about finding answers for everyone but rather to “reveal myself to myself.”

It is, he says, a “holy thing” that helps him to see, to feel, to love and to weep.

And, yes, to laugh — with God.