ARTIST TALK WITH

B.J. CHRISTOFFERSON

Please join us for BJ Christofferson’s ARTIST TALK! She will be talking about her art, inspirations and process. Come! Give a listen to a really great and talented artist!

SANCTUARY

FEATURING B.J. CHRISTOFFERSON w/Nicholas Harper

OPENING: July 21st, 6-11pm

Exhibit runs July 21st - August 19th, 2023

about thE EXHIBIT

Historically, a sanctuary was a holy space such as a temple or church used for communing with the divine. Today the word is more broadly known as a place of safety or refuge, a place where one might escape the rigors of the outside world to find a moment of serenity or inner tranquility, a peaceful spot in nature for instance.

B.J. Christofferson creates miniature worlds laden with allegory and storytelling. In experiencing her work, it’s easy to become immersed in her vignettes, to be transported into another realm where one is capable of both, communing with the divine, or finding a moment of personal refuge and peace.

Using various objects and images to construct her three-dimensional worlds, Christofferson creates dioramas that, while borrowing from religious traditions, bypass the religiosity, placing emphasis on aesthetics and the evocation of emotion.

It is with great pleasure that we present the works of B.J. Christofferson and we invite you to join us for the opening reception on Friday, July 21^st.

A handful of new paintings by Nicholas Harper will accompany the works of Christofferson. As an admirer of her work for well over a decade, his inclusion in this exhibit is viewed by Harper as both an immense honor and a blessing.

This exhibit was co-curated by Ken O'Brien.  O'Brien has been fundamental in many of the aesthetic changes that have taken place in the Rogue Buddha over the past year including bringing his visionary touch to the gallery window displays.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I create small worlds, each with its own reality. These worlds are constructed inside glassed-in boxes, a nod to Joseph Cornell. The images are cut from paper and are flat but layered in ways that make them as three-dimensional as possible. I've loved cutting paper since childhood. I use three-dimensional objects and ephemera wherever it seems necessary, and some of the inhabitants of the dioramas wear clothes I have sewn for them.



I'm drawn to religious images because I feel that they carry an emotional and aesthetic weight, regardless of one's religious orientation. The images I prefer are early Medieval and Spanish Colonial. I find these images to be unselfconscious, and these sources to be a limitless reservoir of inspiration and material for me.

I often use the stage as a setting for my work. (Think of Terry Gilliam's, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen). It's a way to capture a moment in a story or an allegory. I hope the viewer will come upon the scene and interpret the images and details in a personal way and ultimately, to quote Flannery O'Connor, to be left with "... a sense of mystery which can't be accounted for by any human formula."

- B.J. Christofferson