Radiance + Reflection: An Exhibition by David Orr

Tibet House US is pleased to present Radiance + Reflection: Mandalas and Moon, a new solo exhibition of work by Los Angeles-based visual artist David Orr. Orr’s work explores symmetry, themes of interconnection and impermanence, and ways we apply order. The exhibition runs April 7 to July 17 and can be viewed in the gallery Wednesday through Sunday, 11am–1pm & 2–4pm ET. There will be an opening reception with the artist in attendance on Thursday, April 7 from 6–8pm ET.

The exhibition is organized around two bodies of work emerging from Orr’s interests where philosophy and science align: ILLUMINED, wherein photographs of sacred manuscripts, texts, and sūtras are digitally recombined into abstract forms, and Mandala Lunae, moon photography which Orr arranges into complex geometries — a series begun and developed when he had to stay-in-place during the pandemic.

All the works in Radiance + Reflection serve as visual meditations on light. The moon is an enduring Buddhist symbol of truth and enlightenment and his recombined manuscripts obscure the text, appearing as ‘sparks of thought in the dark,’ evoking the Daoist saying: “the deepest truths can never be captured by words alone.”

The works in both series reference sacred geometry, orbital patterns, the Fibonacci series (the spiral sequence that appears in snail shells and galaxies), and other natural forms. All represent ideas in Buddhist thought: transformation, interconnection, the spiritual aspects, and the uncanny alignment with quantum physics.

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“David Orr’s work is elegant, challenging, inspiring, and memorable,” Tibet House co-founder and president Robert A.F. Thurman notes. “When you get closer, you are irresistibly attracted by its symmetrical beauty.”

“Mandalas are the sacred cosmograms of the Hindu-Buddhist world in Asia,” says Beata Tikos, managing director of Tibet House US. “We responded to David’s use of sacred texts from different traditions and the global messages they bring forward of reflection and encouragement to study the mind.”

Prior to the pandemic, Orr had photographed sacred and philosophical texts—from Dante’s Divine Comedy to the Lotus Sūtra—during a residency at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. Later, confined to home as the pandemic took hold, Orr began photographing the moon by telescope, then creating formations he would email to friends and family each Monday (the day named for the moon). “It served as a way to say ‘keep looking towards light’ to the people I care about, as well as a weekly challenge to myself,” says Orr.

Moons and mandalas are universal. “Any mandala is a symbolic map of the universe, and the term comes from the Sanskrit word for ‘circle’,” Orr explains. “Carl Jung noted the mandala form appears in every culture’s belief system. From the earliest celestial maps to probability diagrams in contemporary particle physics, we consistently choose a symmetrical, balanced circular form when representing complex information visually.”

“I’m fascinated by systems we use to make sense of the world around us,” David continues. “But so often, the order we impose becomes mistaken for truth itself. By recombining these images, I’m looking to create meditative catalysts to push us past the material, into the world beyond reason.”

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David Orr is an LA-based artist whose work has been shown extensively internationally alongside artists including David Maisel, Yoko Ono, and Gavin Turk. His work is in public collections among artists such as John Baldessari, David Hockney, and Joel-Peter Witkin. He has been awarded fellowships from The Krishnamurti Foundation, The Mütter Museum, and the Philosophical Research Society, and is a member of the Long Now Foundation. To learn more about David Orr visit www.david-orr.com

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Tibet House US, 22 West 15 St, New York, United States