AN online presentation of the solo exhibition

Dreaming Into the Cosmos
A site-specific art installation
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA
November 2022

Within the soaring spaces of Grace Cathedral, Johanna Baruch suspended 13 giant prints on canvas between the 100’ high columns. The images, part of Johanna’s Cosmos Series paintings, are inspired by the magnificent photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Visitors were invited to experience the cosmos, immersed within the works’ sweeping form and color.

The color and movement of the images resonated with the Cathedral’s architecture and design, holding dynamic conversations with the murals on the walls and the stained glass windows behind them. In certain light, it was as if the banners themselves were windows through which shone their own colors onto the Cathedral’s floor.

As the sun moved across the sky, colors shifted through the illuminated stained glass windows and shone upon the banners themselves. In an unexpected collaboration, the sun added its own brilliant brushstrokes to the artworks.

In a quiet corner, hung next to the mysterious painting of Mary Magdalene that offered a compelling dialogue of color and form between them, Johanna’s image invited visitors to meditate upon their own inner landscapes while traveling through the vastness of space.

The installation presented a multifaceted experience, propelling people into the heights of the cosmos, while inviting them into quiet contemplation of their own inner journeys. And throughout, the labyrinth welcomed visitors to explore the many layered meanings of their individual paths, while sharing in the collective embrace of our universal experience.