Brushes with Faith: Reflections and Conversations on Contemporary Art - Paperback

by Aaron Rosen (Author)

Contemporary artists are engaging more deeply than ever with religious imagery, themes, practices, and audiences. With a bracing, jargon-free style, Aaron Rosen--a leading scholar, art critic, and curator--takes readers into studios, galleries, and worship spaces as he paints a compelling picture of art and religion today. Focusing on individual artists, from eminent names to emerging stars, Rosen's essays and interviews tackle key questions, from how art might sustain communities to how it might offer new approaches to conflict resolution. Drawing on years spent developing relationships with artists around the globe--from Algeria to India to the United States--Rosen gets artists to talk, often for the first time, about how religion impacts their practice. Whether inspiring or unsettling, these brushes with faith challenge and invigorate the artists in question, and those who ponder the results. Replete with more than seventy color images of works ranging from video art to outdoor installations, this volume is indispensable reading for those looking to see contemporary art in a new light.

Author Biography

Aaron Rosen, PhD is a writer, curator, and non-profit leader, respected internationally for his work in the public humanities, interfaith dialogue, and the arts. He is Executive Director of The Clemente Course in the Humanities, a national non-profit delivering transformative, free college courses to underserved communities.



Dr. Rosen is also Visiting Professor of Sacred Traditions & the Arts at King's College London, where he taught previously. He served as Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion in Washington, DC and began his career as a fellow at Yale, Oxford, and Columbia Universities. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge.



Rosen has curated dozens of exhibitions and is founding director of the not-for-profit Parsonage Gallery in Maine. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Spiritual Traces, Brushes with Faith, What Would Jesus See?, and Art & Religion in the 21st Century.