SACRED ART OF J. MICHAEL WALKER AT YALE

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

:The sacred art of J. Michael Walker will be on display at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music from October 10 to November 30. The free exhibition, titled "Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe: J. Michael Walker's Life with the Virgin and Saints," is open weekdays, 9 am to 4 pm. Most of the works will then travel to New York to the National Museum of Catholic Art and History, where they will be on display from December 10 to August 30.

An Arkansas native, Walker was culturally and spiritually transformed by a lengthy stay in the Sierra Tarahumara of northern Mexico. The sacred themes presented in this exhibition reflect the artist's immersion in the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the legends of the saints.

Since 1995, Walker has created a series of works depicting Mexico's most important icon and patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, as a real Mexican woman of Indian descent, engaged in the myriad daily tasks by which women hold the world together.

His imagery flows from an apocryphal revelation in his studio, in which he perceived Guadalupe and her attendant angel "freeing" themselves from their iconic positions, to come down from their pedestals into the three-dimen-sional space of the artist's studio. This "vision" permitted him to place Maria in a physical, three-dimensional space while showing respect for her rich Mexican traditions.

More recently, the artist's attention has focused on the vast number of streets in Los Angeles named after saints - San Julian, Santa Monica and Santa Clara, to name a few. The works inspired by these street names bear witness to the rich Mexican and Catholic tradition present in Los Angeles since the Eighteenth Century.

There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, October 27, from 4:30 to 6 pm in the Great Hall of the Institute. The Yale Institute of Sacred Music is at 409 Prospect Street. For information, www.yale.edu/ism or 203-432-5062.