Transfigurations

by Alex Grey

The most extensive collection of Grey’s visionary artwork and life’s journey in one volume

• Includes a foreword by Albert Hofmann and essays on Grey’s work by renowned art critic Donald Kuspit, philosopher Ken Wilber, and Stephen Larsen, author of Joseph A Fire in the Mind

Every once in a great while an artist emerges who does more than simply reflect the social trends of the time. Such an artist is able to transcend established thinking and help us redefine ourselves and our world. Today, a growing number of art critics, philosophers, and spiritual seekers believe that they have found that vision in the art of Alex Grey.

Transfigurations , the follow-up to Grey’s Sacred Mirrors (1991)--one of the most successful art books of the 1990s--includes all of Grey’s major works completed in the following decade, including the masterful seven-paneled altarpiece Nature of Mind, called “the grand climax of Grey’s art” by Donald Kuspit. His portrayals of human beings blend anatomical exactitude with visionary depictions of universal life energy. Alex Grey’s striking artwork leads us on the soul’s journey from material world encasement to recovery of the divinely illuminated core.

Genres: Art, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Reference, Science, Art and Photography

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953 (Sagittarius), the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son’s drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture. Alex went to the Columbus College of Art and Design on full scholarship from 1971-3. Grey dropped out of art school and painted billboards for Columbus Outdoor Advertising, 1973-4. Grey then moved to Boston to study with and work as studio assistant for conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1974-5. At the Museum School, Alex met his life-long partner, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. At their meeting in 1975, an entheogenically induced mystical experience transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple continued to take “sacramental journeys” on LSD. For five years, Alex worked in the Anatomy department at Harvard Medical School preparing cadavers for dissection while he studied the body on his own. He later worked for Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko as a research technologist at Harvard’s department of Mind/Body Medicine, conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex’s anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (see below) and for working as a medical illustrator. Doctors at Harvard saw images of his Sacred Mirrors, and hired Alex for illustration work.

Grey instructed Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and has taught the Visionary Art Intensive and other art workshops with Allyson at The New York Open Center, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. The couple now teach MAGI workshops (Mystic Artists Guild International) at CoSM in Wappinger, New York. In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. In a major performance entitled WorldSpirit, spoken word poetry in musical collaboration with Kenji Williams was released in 2004 as a DVD.

Grey’s unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. Begun in 1979, the series took a period of ten years to complete. It was during this period that Alex developed depictions of the human body that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spiritual forces. After painting the Sacred Mirrors, he applied this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as praying, meditation, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, nursing and dying. Grey’s recent work explores the subject of consciousness from the perspective of “universal beings” whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls.

Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere express appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Countless teachers and spiritual leaders, including Deepak Choprah, incorporate Alex’s art in their power point presentations. Grey’s paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of TOOL, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Time and Newsweek magazines, the Discovery Chan

Reviews

[BiL]

More amazing art from one of the masters of our time. First edition signed, HA!!! :)

[Joshua Nomen-Mutatio]

[Craig]

Just buy it.

[Lucidmule]

Its an art book, so the reading is interesting/informative. The art is transformational. There is nothing in this world like Alex Grey's art. Expressions from the full pallet of emotions and amazingly surreal.

[Johannes]

In case anyone wants to know what the psychedelic experience looks like.

[Post Oogle Bohemianism]

far out man far out

[Aaron]

Awesome book, more drawings and more writing than Sacred Mirrors. It's pretty wild, "heady" stuff, on the fringe kind of art. I found out about Grey by his work for the band Tool, and I was really impressed by his whole catalog. If you're into Tool's art or just want to see some wild visual stuff, check him out.

[Nadine May]

I've always been drawn to Alex's artwork. The study he does on human behavior, feelings and emotions and then make it visual on a canvas is phenomenal. Not many artists have been able to translate human energy fields into physical art work with the level of skill he does. His work had done a great deal of difference to many people who cannot think in pictures.

[Jason]

More visions, I love visions

[rkosurvivor]

Gotta go and give Lateralus a relisten

[Mapapa]

This book is actually awesome.

[Fraser Hoban]

Beautiful intricate paintings that illicit wonder into what my eyes alone fail to see.

[Will Wilson]

I loved this book, both for the images and the stories behind them. I appreciate Grey's love of contrasts - young/old, black/white, male/female, inner/outer, up/down, etc. I love how much thought he puts into every detail of his works. I have always enjoyed just looking at them, but now I have a deeper understanding of the artist's intentions. This book also has my absolute favorite piece of art - "Cosmic Christ" (pg 159). It is always impressive, but if you can see it while in the right set and setting, it is frankly magical.

[Dave]

This book is life changing and awesome. It is inconceivably and breathtakingly beautiful and real. The wonderfully talented work is raw, mind expanding and deeply spiritual. This book helps breakdown the deep meaning and inspiration behind what is possibly the most important and most incredible visionary art of the last 50 years.

[Becki]

The carrots, run

[Carl]

Gorgeous. If you can't actually visit the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in NYC, and I highly recommend doing so if you're in town, this book is a magnificent overview of Grey's spiritually inspired artistic oeuvre.

[Tina]

icko

[Antonio Margal]

Una experiencia visual altamente psicodélica el hojear cada página. Un libro(te) precioso.

[bebe_thoreau]

absolutely amazing :)

[Victoria]

astounding.

[Gabriela Petrovajová]

very interesting and sometimes very controversal too. I had troubles to continue sometimes (e.g. vomiting on a brain, dead bodies cutting..)