Faces from the Adoration of Mary is part of an art exhibition at the Sorenson Unity Center

Friday, Jan. 16, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Pain, joy, persecution, freedom, discrimination, acceptance, faith, hope and a variety of life experiences are portrayed in Amravín de Schur’s art, some pieces of which are on display in the ‘Imagine Nations’ exhibit at the Sorenson Unity Center in Salt Lake City.

De Schur uses a variety of media, from bronze to wood, from acrylic to mosaic. She also combines different elements to express her art. 

A segment of the exhibit is called “Faces from the Adoration of Mary.” Among the pieces  is the Asuncion. This piece, made of five long rectangle pieces of wood, has a special story.

She began the piece years ago, but because of circumstances, “I sold everything I had and, except for a bronze cast and  the five pieces of wood, one of them with the image of Mary already carved with iron,” and moved to Belgium. There, de Schur continued her art work but after almost eight years she returned to Utah.

She had left the cast and pieces of wood with a University of Utah professor, and to her surprise he had kept them, and returned them to her when she came back, de Schur said. 

She was inspired by that caring act to continue with that particular piece until it was finished. 

“My inspiration was based on the Holy Spirit,” said de Schur.

In the Asuncion, Mary is depicted as having a solar system around her, guided by the Holy Spirit. 

“I also included, very abstract, the families with their roots, their communities and their links and how people are interconnected. My experience was transmitted in this piece,” said de Schur.

In other pieces she tries to replicate the message of John Paul II to artists. 

“Art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that, even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience,” de Schur said. “Insofar as it seeks the beautiful, fruit of an imagination that rises above the everyday, art is by its nature a kind of appeal to the mystery.” 

“My art is a gift from God,” said de Schur, a native of Peru. She married a German citizen and lived in Germany for some time. “I want to use it for healing and to show the world what I and many others have been through.”

The art exhibit at the Sorenson Unity Center in Salt Lake City will be open to the public until Feb. 14. The pieces that are on exhibit are not for sale. Instead, “this art collection is becoming part of a loving project for helping people in a Catholic hospice in Germany, where those who are departing can find a dignified way of living fully, without having to resort to the dehumanizing option of voluntary euthanasia,” de Schur said. “I am happy to announce that this project is my most cherished dream for using the immortality of the art to help life unfold in its own ways.”