Religion, Rebellion and Revelations in “Angels, Outlaws, Sinners and Saints”

Hartley Peck '27 admiring the art and sculptures at the newly unveiled "Angels, Outlaws, Sinners and Saints" exhibit. Photo by Miguel Rojas '25

Hudson Valley artists Sean Bowen and Lisa Winika held the opening ceremony for their “Angels, Outlaws, Sinners and Saints” exhibit at Poughkeepsie’s Gallery 40 on 40 Cannon St. on Sept. 7.

“Gallery 40 wants to promote cultural events for the community. Our vision for the future is continuing to build a stronger relationship with the communities, promoting visual art and [eventually] expanding to performing arts,” said Paola Bari, co-owner and curator of Gallery 40.

The two artists greeted me and my friends at the door despite the increasingly intense rain shower passing over. We lightly jogged to the other side of the road as Winika opened her arms, turned her torso towards the gallery and emphatically welcomed us to the exhibit.

Each artist took to their respective side of the building. Bowen’s paintings were displayed on the left wall, with Winika’s sculptures on the right. Set against exposed brick walls, geometric chandeliers and rustic leather couches encircling tables adorned with cheese platters, the gallery invited its guests to experience the art in a homelike environment, similar to how the pieces may be displayed once purchased. The issue was that nobody was looking at the art.

Most, if not all, of the attendees were friends and family of the two artists. The curiosity we stoked as young — the youngest person outside of our group could have been 30 years older than the oldest one of us — and foreign — both ethnic and unfamiliar — faces wasn’t lost on me.

“It’s great having young people here,” “It’s wonderful having different perspectives,” “It’s interesting seeing people here who are actually looking at the art.” The fascination was endearing — edging on euphemistic, but hopefully genuine.

Gleaming eyes eventually dimmed, and we each took our time with the pieces.

The theme, which focuses on the duality between the search for the divine and the tendency to sin, encourages the exploration of the human psyche through a religious lens.

Bowen takes a more overtly Catholic interpretation of the theme, juxtaposing images of the Christ and Virgin Mary with paintings of artists and activists to explore rebellion, fanaticism and individuality. His approach is distinctly pop art, with the paintings described as ‘Warholian’ by more than one person.

Largely painted in acrylic, Bowen’s portraits are brightly colored and in-your-face, even when working in gray. While being a key facet of his art style, using acrylic came out of necessity. “I started painting in a small apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, and I had a small son, so I didn’t want oil paints there, so I painted with acrylic,” said Bowen.

Mark Hopkins, a surrealist artist and former art professor, spoke on Bowen’s color use in a gray painting: “They’re not dead grays. He’s pulling life into these black-&-white pieces.” Connecting this to the pop-art style, he said Bowen’s paintings are “all communicating some kind of internal personality with very simple lines…you’re feeling these people, and there’s very little information there.”

Bowen’s sense of life was evident in the art’s room for interpretation.

Dimitri Rios ‘26, a junior in the fashion design program, commented on a background motif Bowen uses in his religious paintings. “He depicted religious figures; however, surrounding the figures were ‘666’–s supposed to represent very simplistic faces. I think it’s an intentional contrast meant to depict [the figures’] controversy.”

When asked about the faces in the background, Bowen indicated that they represent “the multitudes of people who go to mass; the half-believers, the true believers.” Even as Bowen uses pop art’s simplicity to tell these stories, he embeds layers for his audience to peel back and explore.

Winika’s interpretation is much more spiritual.

Shamanism, Buddhism and references to Catholicism and Greek mythology are all present in the collection. She uses clay plaster sculptures to explore the body as an outward projection of the self, sculpting naked bodies to invoke vulnerability akin to the outward vulnerability of a spiritual journey.

I asked a man hovering near the sculptures for his opinion on Winika’s exhibit; he turned out to be her father. Daniel Brown, poet and proud father, said how she models each sculpture off of real people in her life, covering a friend or family member in plaster and creating a mold from the contours of their body.

“Her friends and family become the art and take on another persona as the subject of the sculpture,” Brown said. He emphasized how these two stories become interwoven, even immortalized through her art.

Nansi Lent, an artist and friend of both Bowen and Winika, gave insight into how Winika’s experience as a masseuse gives her art “an incredible sense of body,” noting anatomical consistencies in paintings meant to distort and create abstractions of the human skeleton.

Regarding Winika’s work, Hopkins spoke on how her blend of physics, human development and spirituality makes for “an interesting image to think about, which is what I like — art that makes you stop and think, that you can go back and explore over and over again.”

“I’m just a middle-aged woman who watches cat videos,” Winika wrote on a blurb next to her paintings. “Anything really good that I accomplish comes through me, rather than being something I’m conscious about,” she said. Her art is accidental, according to her; directly in contrast — and perhaps contributing to — the thinking she provokes in her audience.

The accidentality was noted by a friend of mine, even if not directly referenced. Hanna Beth Lee ‘25, a fashion design senior, “loved her writing more than the artwork; the personality in her blurbs and her writing was more enticing than the art herself, especially after meeting her. But, the theme did the majority of the work for them.” And this critique can be given to both artists.

The gallery works as a complete exhibit, with the theme, blurbs and individual personalities of the artists present; however, I question if it’s equally compelling without the clues there to guide me to my conclusions. Does the gallery stand on its own? Are the individual paintings compelling when separated from the gallery?

Honestly, it’s a hit or miss. Both Bowen and Winika have intricate pieces with clear depth and thought put into them. Bowen’s depictions of the Virgin Mary, and Winika’s Joan of Arc sculpture and her “Beings from Another Dimension” collection of paintings are all pieces that reveal more of themselves the longer that you look at them, and they’re standouts for this reason. The stories behind each art piece, their process and the artists themselves add depth to the gallery that may not exist in each piece individually.

Fortunately for those in attendance, and those walking through the gallery for the rest of the month, the energy, enthusiasm and personality of Bowen and Winika are irrefutably painted on the walls, making for an exciting collection of art in a beautiful locale.

The exhibit will be on display through Sept. 30 and is located about a five-minute car ride from the Marist College campus.