What could Jesus Christ and rock icon Peter Frampton possibly have in common? For one Texas artist, both men are unironically one in the same.
After closing for renovations in July, The Columbia Museum of Art has opened its doors to welcome visitors into the larger than life world of Katie Pell through the current exhibition, “Something’s Happening: The Big Art of Katie Pell.”
Through her art, Pell reminisces about what it meant to grow up as a teenager in the 70s and shares her fascination with the creation of one's self-image. Each of her four galleries at the CMA present this overarching theme in a wide variety of mediums that range from portraits to what Pell describes as “adoration drawings.”
“Katie’s work is all about the human condition, and she asks us to laugh at ourselves and our flaws, and yet at the same time she wants us to celebrate them and realize that we’re incredible,” Catherine Walworth, a curator at the CMA, said. “I like that message and it’s for every single person.”
The main gallery is a collection of collages that aims to capture the human side of Jesus and the divine sides of a number of rock legends. Pell does so by combining medieval iconography and classic rock album covers to create eye-catching hybrids. By surrounding rock legends with religious symbols, Pell illustrates how these artists were able to elevate themselves from ordinary people into icons by crafting newfound personas.
“I hope that people can all relate to Katie Pell’s central theme, which is how do we each build ourselves out of our own raw materials? What do we then borrow from other people to create our own personal mythos?” Walworth said. “This exhibition begins with the moment she realized that was possible, namely as an impressionable teenager in the ‘70s discovering all these sexy male rock musicians and analyzing how they built their own imagery and persona.”
Walworth has been a fan of Pell’s work for 15 years and first discovered her while living in San Antonio. After reviewing one of Pell's galleries, it didn’t take long for Walworth to see there was something special about the imaginative artist.
Shortly after becoming a curator at the CMA in 2016, Walworth pitched the idea to showcase Pell's work. During this time, she traveled back to Pell’s San Antonio studio to discuss what stories Pell wanted to tell and the possibility of her creating new work. From that point forward, Walworth and the staff at the CMA continued to work directly with Pell to make her vision become a reality.
“I have always been left wanting more when Katie talks about her work. When she gave lectures during the opening weekend, the auditorium was full of laughter and I think we surprised our visitors with some really fresh contemporary art and a unique personality,” Walworth said.
In Pell’s second gallery, she makes the visitor the centerpiece. Through interweaving baroque art, Pell places the viewer in the center of an “adoration drawing." She creates a frame that surrounds the viewer with the likes of woodland creatures and Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks. Whereas her first gallery found her visitors doing the adoring, the visitor has now become the one who being adored.
Pell’s third gallery finds its muse in 70s era college students from Texas she discovered in an old yearbook. In a series of hand drawn portraits, Pell aims to show how each student’s personal style makes them stand out in a sea of similarity. Lastly, Pell's fourth gallery transports viewers to her childhood in Delaware where she swam in a creek with old friends.
"Pell draws on real life experiences and uses whatever medium inspires her to tell her stories. As a result, you’ve probably never seen a giant wooden charm bracelet before this, and probably won’t see one again. But Pell made one to create another personal narrative and it’s a wonderful piece of sculpture," Walworth said.
Across four diverse galleries, Walworth believes that Pell’s art creates a welcoming atmosphere that people from all walks of life can come together and enjoy.
“Picture that famous image where light hits a clear glass prism and a rainbow shoots out of it. I always think of Art with a capital 'A' as the prism through which life passes, and then a rainbow of different creative interpretations emerge,” Walworth said. “Pell considers herself first and foremost a storyteller, so her exhibition showcases lots of ways to tell stories.”