I was not really aware of Paul Laffoley’s work at all or his opening of “Mind Physics” last night  at Kent Gallery for and was quite surprised to end up at this opening last night.  Paul Laffoley’s work , like the Orgone Monitor (see below) is full of metaphysics and magical symbols, both white and black.  In fact I was not quite sure what Paul Laffoley is saying but I enjoyed the work, all the same.

The Orgone Motor - Paul Laffoley - care of Kent Gallery - NYC

Here’s some information about Paul Laffoley from www.dilettantepress.com

“…Paul Laffoley was born into an Irish Catholic family in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1940. He spoke his first word, “Constantinople,” at six months, then remained silent until the age of four (having been diagnosed as slightly autistic), when he began to draw and paint. In his senior year at Brown University, he was given eight electric-shock treatments. He was dismissed from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, but managed to apprentice with the sculptor Mirko Baseldella, before going to New York to apprentice with the visionary architect Frederick Kiesler. In 1968 he moved into an eighteen- by thirty-foot utility room to found a one-man “think tank” and creative unit called the Boston Visionary Cell.

Laffoley supports himself with a job at the Boston Museum of Science, returning to the BVC not only to eat and sleep but to work on multimedia renderings of his visions of alternative futures and complex realities.

During a routine CAT-scan of his head in 1992, a miniature metallic implant, 3/8 of an inch long, was discovered in the occipital lobe of his brain, near the pineal gland. Local M.U.F.O.N. investigators declared it to be an alien nanotechnological laboratory. He has come to believe that the “implant” is extraterrestrial in origin and is the main motivation behind his ideas and theories.”

I spoke with the artist for a couple of minutes but did not find out much - there were a couple of posters for sale in the back room.  Referring to the description and history of the artist above, it seems to me to match someone who’s brilliant but a little cracked - perhaps someone who’s social autistic - which I can totally understand and relate to.  It would see to me a fairer statement that Paul Laffoley is ahead of his time.   I don’t know what to say about the “implant” in his head - or the other things mentioned above.  I have heard those stories too, but I don’t really focus that kind of thing - the world has changed so much and is changing so quickly that even this kind of story does not seem that important or yet, outlandish.

My own opinion is Paul Laffoley deserves much more exposure in main stream media than he’s gotten.  Getting back to my observations of the show - which I’ll go back and see again…..I noticed the people at the gallery opening were different that the crowds I usually see at openings - Paul Laffoley has a fan base - to certain groups and communities - they know who is and some of those people were at the opening including Alex Gray and his wife Allyson.  I spoke with Allyson for about 30 minutes and she was open, frank and seemed like a very nice person. I was somewhat familiar with Alex Gray’s work and had briefly met him about 20 years ago at an Open Center event in NYC - but had no other contact with him since then, till last night.

Paul Laffoley, the gallery owner, Alex and Allyson Gray were going out to dinner after the show - and the gallery was closing for the night - or I would have stayed and chatted some more.   As it was, Allyson invited me to one of their Saturday evening meetings (and all night visionary painting sessions) at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, in Chelsea - these usually happen often, usually on a Saturday night.   It’s almost like a visionary night club.  Maybe I’ll go to the next “tour” of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors on January 27th, 2007 - I would link directly to it but the way COSM.org is set up it’s hard to select a link on the site - much of the commerce part is happening in an “i-frame” or window within a page, and there’s nothing to select.  Anyway, this does seem like a contact worth pursuing - so I will, and write about it here.

Paul Laffoley and the Gray’s go back pretty far - several years, and Laffoley is based in Boston.

I asked Laffoley to talk a little more about his theosophical underpinnings in symbolism of visionary art - the art he does - and there really are some major pieces in this show that go back 30-40 years - including Woodstock.

 

This last work seemed more to be about the mix of White and Black Magic - it looks all mixed up - and but work is 100% professional and really good - like Paul Laffoley should be more well known than he is - perhaps it’s his esoteric symbolism that interferes - but it should not have.

A lot of what Paul Laffoley paints about really Modern Art - it belongs in MOMA.  Paul’s work also reminded me a lot of Joe Coleman - and I guess everyone knows each other - more or less in the Visionary Art circle.

When I have more to say about Visionary Art - Visionary Artists _ I’ll post again on this.  For now, it’s enough to say I’m glad I went to see this show and if your in NYC this month and part of next month, check out Kent Gallery at 541- West 25th Street, where you can see Paul Laffoley’s work - till February 17th, 2007.