Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953 in Columbus, Ohio) is an artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art (or visionary art) that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Alex Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His oeuvre spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, aka CoSM, a non-profit institution supporting Visionary Culture in New York City. is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country State Counties Franklin, Fairfield, Delaware Government  - Mayor Michael B. Coleman (D) Area  - City 212. ... The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... Santanas Abraxas (album) cover by Mati Klarwein Psychedelic art is art inspired by the psychedelic experience induced by drugs such as LSD, Mescaline, and Psilocybin. ... Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences. ... New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ... Vajrayāna Buddhism (Also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayana, Mantrayana, Mantranaya, Esoteric Buddhism, Diamond Vehicle, or 金剛乘 Jingangcheng in Chinese; however, these terms are not always regarded as equivalent: one scholar[1] speaks of the tantra divisions of some editions of the Kangyur as including Sravakayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana texts) is... Opus, from the Latin word opus meaning work, is usually used in the sense of a work of art. Some composers musical pieces are identified by opus numbers which generally run either in order of composition or in order of publication. ... This article is about Performance art. ... Process Art may be understood as an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment and worldview where the end product of art and craft, the objet d’art, is not the principal focus. ... Installation art uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the way we experience a particular space. ... Sculptor redirects here. ... Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences. ... For other uses , see Painting (disambiguation). ... The Integral Institute is a think-tank founded in 1998 by American philosopher, psychologist, and mystic Ken Wilber. ... The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics is an non-profit organization that encourages and protects freedom of thought. ...

Biography

Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953, the middle child of a 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. He went to the Columbus College of Art and Design for two years (1971-73), then dropped out and painted billboards in Ohio for a year (1973-74). Grey then attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for one year, to study with the conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav. Nickname: Location in the state of Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country State Counties Franklin, Fairfield, Delaware Government  - Mayor Michael B. Coleman (D) Area  - City 212. ... Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), is one of the largest and oldest private art colleges in the United States. ... The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (also known as the Museum School or SMFA) is an undergraduate and graduate college located in Boston, Massachusetts and is dedicated to the visual arts. ...

At the Boston Museum School he met his wife, the artist Allyson Rymland Grey.^[1] During this period he had a series of entheogenically induced mystical experiences that transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple would trip together on LSD. Alex then spent five years at Harvard Medical School working in the Anatomy department studying the body and preparing cadavers for dissection. He also worked at Harvard's department of Mind/Body Medicine with Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko, conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex's anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (explained below) and for doing medical illustration. When doctors saw his Sacred Mirrors, they asked him to do illustration work. Grey was an instructor in Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and now teaches courses in Visionary Art with Allyson at The Open Center in New York City; the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado; the California Institute of Integral Studies and the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. This entry covers entheogens as psychoactive substances used in a religious or shamanic context. ... Existentialism is a philosophical movement that posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them. ... Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early-to mid-19th century. ... Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly called LSD, LSD-25, or acid. ... Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. ... New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. ... Naropa University is a private, liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado, which was founded in 1974 by Chogyam Trungpa. ...

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. The most recent performance was WorldSpirit, a spoken word and musical collaboration with Kenji Williams which was released in 2004 as a DVD. For other uses, see Rite of passage (disambiguation). ... Kenji Williams Kenji Williams is a Filmmaker, Electronic music Producer, and Violinist. ...

Grey's unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors (on display at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York City), takes 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 he developed his 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 has explored the subject of consciousness from the perspective of "universal beings" whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, X-ray represents the letter X. An X-ray picture (radiograph) taken by Röntgen An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength approximately in the range of 5 pm to 10 nanometers (corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 PHz...

Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere have expressed appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision in his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Grey's paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of Tool, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Newsweek magazine, the Discovery Channel, Rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including Feature Inc., Tibet House, Stux Gallery, P.S. 1, The Outsider Art Fair and the New Museum in NYC, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Alex has been a keynote speaker at conferences all over the world including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Basel, Barcelona and Manaus. The international psychedelic community has embraced Grey as an important mapmaker and spokesman for the visionary realm. Tool is a Grammy-award winning American rock band, formed in 1990 in Los Angeles, California. ... SCi (originally The Sales Curve and later Sales Curve Interactive) is a [[England|] video game publisher. ... The Beastie Boys are a hip hop musical group from New York City consisting of Michael Mike D Diamond, Adam MCA Yauch, Adam Ad-Rock Horovitz. ... This article is about the American grunge band. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... Discovery Channel is a cable and satellite TV channel founded by John Hendricks which is distributed by Discovery Communications. ... For other uses, see Rave (disambiguation). ... Overview The Tibet House was founded in 1987 by Columbia University professor Robert Thurman, actor Richard Gere and modern composer Philip Glass (among others) at the behest of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. ... P.S.1 building exterior. ... Grand Palais in 2004 The Grand Palais (Grand Palace) is a large glass exhibition hall that was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1900. ...

A large installation called Heart Net by Alex and his wife, Allyson, was displayed at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum in 1998-99. A mid-career retrospective of Grey's works was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1999. The large format art book, Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey has been translated into five languages and has sold over one hundred thousand copies, unusual for an art book. His inspirational book, The Mission of Art, traces the evolution of human consciousness through art history, exploring the role of an artist's intention and conscience, and reflecting on the creative process as a spiritual path. The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is an art museum located in Baltimore, Maryland. ... There are several museums entitled the Museum of Contemporary Art. They include: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, USA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, USA Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, USA Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Rosa, California USA Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran Museum...

Transfigurations is Alex's second large-format monograph, containing over 300 color and black & white images of his work. Sounds True has released The Visionary Artist, a CD of Grey's reflections on art as a spiritual practice. ARTmind is the artist's recent video exploring the healing potential of Sacred Art. Grey co-edited the book, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle Books, 2002). In 2004 Grey’s VISIONS boxed set containing a portfolio of new works and Sacred Mirrors and Transfigurations, his collected works. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, a long-term exhibition of fifty works of transformative art by Grey opened in the Fall of 2004 in New York City. He lives in New York City with his wife, painter Allyson Grey, and their daughter, actress Zena Grey. Zena Lotus Grey (born November 15, 1988) is an American actress. ...

Paintings

Grey's paintings can be described as an unusual and contemporary blend of sacred or visionary art and postmodern art; one term used to describe the artist's work is "transpersonal". His work often depicts aspects of the supernatural world overlayed with aspects of the natural world. Some viewers report that elevated or spiritual states are induced while viewing his images, which might be described as the traditional purpose of sacred art. His work has an eclecticism that often integrates auras, human anatomy, religious icons (sometimes reminiscent of thangkas), geometric shapes and tessellations (sometimes reminiscent of mandalas), in natural, industrial, and multicultural situations. The human figures are sometimes shown nude (usually with partially translucent skin), in sexual situations, or in the act of meditation. This incorporation of the "high" and "low", the sacred and secular, gives Grey's art a postmodern feel. However, the sacred aspect essentially expunges any sense of irony often associated with postmodern art (one might cite some people's reactions to the art of Andy Warhol). For other uses , see Painting (disambiguation). ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. ... Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences. ... Postmodern art is a term used to describe art which is thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath. ... The term Transpersonal is often used to refer to psychological categories that transcend the normal features of ordinary ego-functioning. ... For other uses, see Supernatural (disambiguation). ... Natural World (sometimes in the past titled Wildlife On One or Wildlife On Two) is a long-running BBC television series on natural history. ... Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. ... Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts, in which features are borrowed from various sources and styles. ... Look up aura in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about modern humans. ... Human heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... Religious is a term with both a technical definition and folk use. ... Look up icon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A Thangka is a painted or embroidered Tibetan banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. ... For other uses, see Geometry (disambiguation). ... Look up shape in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A tessellated plane seen in street pavement. ... For the film, see Mandala (film). ... This article is about the physical universe. ... Multiculturalism or cultural pluralism is a policy, ideal, or reality that emphasizes the unique characteristics of different cultures in the world, especially as they relate to one another in immigrant receiving nations. ... The word nude may refer to: The state of nudity. ... It has been suggested that Duration of sexual intercourse be merged into this article or section. ... For other senses of this word, see Meditation (disambiguation). ... SACRED SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... Postmodern art is a term used to describe art which is thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath. ... Ironic redirects here. ... Postmodern art is a term used to describe art which is thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath. ... Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987), better known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist who was a central figure in the movement known as Pop art. ...

Philosophy

Grey has also made his own contribution to the philosophy of art in his book The Mission of Art (1998). Therein, he promotes the possibility of the mystical potential of art: he argues that the process of artistic creation can (and should) play a role in the enlightenment of the artist. For him, the process of artistic creation holds the potential of transcending the limitations of the mind and more fully expressing the divine spirit. He also believes that art can induce within the viewer an elevated state wherein spiritual states of being are attained. The Integral Institute is a think-tank founded in 1998 by American philosopher, psychologist, and mystic Ken Wilber. ... Aesthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word αισθητική) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. ... Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ...

In an interview with Ken Wilber for Integral Naked, Grey described an experience of the shared hallucination between him and his wife, which led him to believe in spirituality and spiritual practice. Ken Wilber Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. ... Integral Naked is a multimedia doorway to the world of integral awareness. ... A hallucination is a perception in the absence of a stimulus that the person may or may not believe is real. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... A spiritual practice, spiritual discipline or spiritual exercise (sadhana) includes any activity that one associates with cultivating spirituality. ...

Reception

Painting and music groups

Grey's artwork has often been used by music groups on their album covers.

• An album of David Byrne remixes called Visible Man featured Grey's artwork.
• Michael Hedges's album Torched features one of Grey's "Holy Fire" paintings on the cover.
• Nirvana's album In Utero featured Grey's art as album artwork.
• The cover of the String Cheese Incident's album Untying the Not features Grey's work Cosmic Elf, commissioned specifically for the album.
• Hip-Hop group the Beastie Boys featured Grey's "Tree of Life" painting as well as his "Vision Crystal" image inside the booklet of their album "Ill Communication".
• The rock band Tool has featured Grey's artwork as album artwork for their album Lateralus. He also executed the stage design for Tool for the associated tour that included massive reproductions of the album artwork as well as provide the artwork for the 2006 Tool album 10,000 Days. Tool also used a few paintings from Alex on their 2007 tour of Europe, Asia, and North America
• In 2004 a live multimedia performance was recorded as a DVD titled Worldspirit - featuring the animated artwork and live spoken word of Alex Grey, coupled with the project direction and live music of Kenji Williams.
• The alleged mystical properties of Grey's artwork are discussed in Stuart Davis' 2006 DVD Between the Music.

David Byrne (born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland) is a Grammy Award, Academy Award and Golden Globe winning musician best known as a founding member and the principal songwriter of the New Wave band Talking Heads. ... Michael Hedges 1953-1997 Michael Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist born in Enid, Oklahoma. ... This article is about the American grunge band. ... In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American grunge band Nirvana, released on September 21, 1993 by DGC Records. ... Back: Jason Hann, Michael Travis, Billy Nershi, Kieth Moseley Front: Kyle Hollingsworth, Michael Kang The String Cheese Incident, one of the bands involved in the jam movement of the mid-to-late 1990s, formed in Crested Butte, Colorado in 1993, originally playing local gigs at ski resorts in exchange for... Untying the Not is the sixth release and fourth stuido album of Colorado based Jam band, String Cheese Incident. ... The Beastie Boys are a hip hop musical group from New York City consisting of Michael Mike D Diamond, Adam MCA Yauch, Adam Ad-Rock Horovitz. ... Ill Communication is the fourth album by the Beastie Boys. ... This article is about the genre. ... A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. ... Tool is a Grammy-award winning American rock band, formed in 1990 in Los Angeles, California. ... Alternative cover Holographic gatefold package Lateralus (pronounced ) is the third full-length album by Tool. ... 10,000 Days is the Grammy Award-winning fourth full-length studio album by Tool. ... Stuart Davis performing (with Chad Phillips on bass guitar) at the 2005 Boulder Creek Festival in Boulder, Colorado Stuart Davis (born on January 11, 1971 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA) is a contemporary American musician and songwriter from Minnesota. ...

In the media

Grey's artwork has been featured on the cover of Sub Rosa, Newsweek, High Times, Shaman's Drum, Shambhala Sun, Juxtapoz, Vision, Gnosis and The Healing Power of Neurofeedback: The Revolutionary LENS Technique for Restoring Optimal Brain Function. Look up sub rosa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... Cover image of High Times premiere issue, Summer 1974. ... Shamans Drum Journal, a periodical devoted to experiential shamanism, is edited by Timothy White and published by the Cross-Cultural Shamanism Network (a nonprofit educational organization). ... The Shambhala Sun is a bimonthly magazine offering teachings from the Buddhist and other contemplative traditions, with an emphasis on applying these principles and practices to everyday life. ... Categories: Stub | Magazines | Surrealism ... Look up vision in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The Discovery Channel included Grey in a feature on art and creativity in altered states. Discovery Channel is a cable and satellite TV channel founded by John Hendricks which is distributed by Discovery Communications. ... The phrase altered state of consciousness was coined in the 1970s and describes induced changes in ones mental state, almost always temporary. ...

The Viking Youth Power Hour interviewed Alex & Allyson Grey about the role of sacred art, the holy shenanigans of Burning Man, and the development of his process. The Viking Youth Power Hour is a weekly podcast. ... Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. ... The event is named after its Saturday night ritual, the burning of a wooden effigy. ...

Grey's work and his Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in New York City are featured in a 2006 DVD release CoSM The Movie, directed by Nick Krasnic.

In Variable Star, a science fiction novel written by Spider Robinson based on a story outline by Robert A. Heinlein, Robinson devotes several pages to his protagonist's discovery of Grey's Sacred Mirrors and Progress of the Soul series, and to using them to enhance meditation.^[2] Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948 in New York City) is a Canadian science fiction writer. ... Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ...

Collections

• Transfigurations
• Visions

Publications

• 1990 - Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alexander Grey (Alex Grey) (Inner Traditions Bear and Company) ISBN 0892813148
• 2001 - Transfigurations (Alex Grey) (Inner Traditions Bear and Company) ISBN 0892818514
• 2001 - The Mission of Art (Alex Grey) (Shambhala Publications Inc.) ISBN 157062545X
• 2007 - Metamorphosis: 50 Contemporary Surreal, Fantastic and Visionary Artists (beinArt) ISBN 978-0-9803231-0-8

See also

• Zena Grey
• Chapel of Sacred Mirrors
• 10,000 days
• Tool
• Thangka
• Sky burial

Zena Lotus Grey (born November 15, 1988) is an American actress. ... 10,000 Days is the Grammy Award-winning fourth full-length studio album by Tool. ... Tool is a Grammy-award winning American rock band, formed in 1990 in Los Angeles, California. ... A Thangka is a painted or embroidered Tibetan banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. ... Sky burial is a ritual practice common in Tibet that involves placing the body of the deceased in a high ground (mountain) and expose it ritually, especially to birds of prey. ...

References

is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ... Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948 in New York City) is a Canadian science fiction writer. ...

External links

• Alex Grey's Home Page
• Chapel of Sacred Mirrors home page
• Interview with Joel Metzger for the Online Noetic Network
• The Have You Seen God Mandala Collection, including work by Alex Grey
• Alex Grey - Visionary Art Collective - Website documenting living contemporary Surreal, Fantastic Realists and Visionary artists
• Alex Grey MP3 audio - from Shift in Action, sponsored by Institute of Noetic Sciences
• Interview and art pieces in MungBeing Magazine
• Worldspirit DVD
• CoSM The Movie DVD
• Alex Grey on Integral Naked - Art, MP3 interview, Video