Holy Art!: Biblical Proportions at Blue Genie and Bearded Lady [Art Preview]

On Good Friday (that's tomorrow, for all you non-observant readers), two gods among mortals in the Austin art world, Michael Schliefke and Ian Shults, are curating a holy showing of art entitled Biblical Proportions. The exhibit will be split up between two East Side studios, Blue Genie and Bearded Lady, where the focus will be on art from the Old Testament and the New Testament, respectively. The over one hundred participating artists have been asked to create a piece of art based off of a story from the Bible. Many local artists have contributed pieces to Biblical Proportions including Jenny Hart, Rory Skagen, and Nathan Jensen; their work will be joined by national artists like Corey Goering, and Nathan Fox.

Shultz and Schliefke have joined forces before to curate some very popular group shows including Gallery Lombardi's Radical Nautical from 2007 and the 2005 Will There Ever Be A Rainbow? Unicorn Art Show that took place at Bolm Studios. Schliefke is also well known for being the author and illustrator of the first two volumes of the gentrification comic book, The Really White Vigilante. Shults is a talented self taught painter who has also worked as a lead sculptor and illustrator on various large commissioned pieces.

Schliefke says of curating the show that "this has been one of the strangest shows I've put together... When I told people I was putting together a Bible art show, I got a lot of raised eyebrows and odd looks - artists, and the circles they run in, are notoriously secular creatures." But because "so much of Western Art and Civilization revolves around the Bible that it seemed like a natural fit to make artists look back to the original stories and create some new work based off of them."

The exhibit is free and open throughout the weekend. The Old Testament Show at Blue Genie will hold its opening reception on Friday from 6-11pm, and the New Testament Show at Bearded Lady opens on Saturday from 6-11pm. Both exhibits will be open on Easter Sunday from noon until 6pm. There will be an after party on Saturday from 11am until 2am at Shangri-La (1016 E. 6th), because that's what Jesus would do.