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The Chapel Of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM): A Review

The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), on the 4th floor at 542 West 27th Street, New York, NY. I know of Alex Grey because he has done the album artwork for a number of bands, from Tool to the Beastie Boys to the String Cheese Incident. I came over from Brooklyn, taking the subway to 23rd Street and walking the rest of the way. I arrived at 4:45 pm. The area of 27th Street that the gallery is on seemed empty when I arrived, and street parking would have been relatively easy. The exterior of the building was very plain, a traditional New York City high-rise building. I saw a small sign for CoSM, and followed two other newcomers up four flights of stairs to the gallery. There was a large desk right through the entrance but no one was behind it. I was a bit confused, so I headed down a corridor, passing a gift shop on my right. There were a few people in there (including Alex Grey, I later found out) but I decided to keep going past it and saw another desk off to my right, this time with a person behind it. I paid $5, received a pin, and decided to look around. The interior of CoSM is extremely well decorated. There is a nice wooden floor, large leather couches, and interesting things to look at all over the walls. Faint classical music could be heard in the background. Before heading into the gallery, I decided to use the bathroom. I found that the bathrooms were marked with ! and " symbols, which threw me for a minute, as I blanked on which was male and which was female; fortunately, I guessed right. The bathroom was extremely clean and well maintained, similar to the rest of the place. After this little refresher, I headed towards the gallery. The gallery was broken up into three sections: the main gallery, the Hall of Sacred Mirrors, and the MicroCoSM gallery. I went into the main gallery first. It was well lit, and I noticed spacey-trance music flowing faintly. The first room I entered had relatively modest-sized (3x4 ft) panels depicting various stages/elements of life. All of the paintings were accompanied by small card with the name, date, and format of the painting (no descriptions were given). Kissing, copulating, pregnancy, childbirth, caring, and death each received their own painting. They were all done on linen with oil paints. I was especially

fascinated with death, as it showed the energy of the soul emerging from a dying man and rising towards a light; I spent a good ten minutes with this painting. The second room had much larger paintings (20x5 ft) and a shrine in the corner. The shrine had a large multi-faced statue in the middle and was covered with various trinkets and images. In this room, I noticed that there were small chairs and cushions scattered on the floor. I really loved that touch, and proceeded to relax on a beanbag as I looked at Greys mammoth paintings. The third room that I entered had only three images, titled Gaia, Cosmic Christ, and Nuclear Christ. I found these pieces to be the most fascinating of the entire gallery. Gaia was depicted on two large panels that were pressed together. A large tree stretched out from the middle onto both panels; on the left side was peace, and on the right side was war. It was an extremely beautiful depiction, and my singular favorite piece that I saw at Alex Greys gallery. Next to Gaia was Cosmic Christ, which, in extreme detail, depicted various world events and leaders of importance. The other image, Nuclear Christ, showed Jesus suspended (as if on the cross) and surrounded by a nuclear explosion. I spent a good amount of time in this room, partly because an extremely attractive blonde admirer started talking to me about the artwork. After Id finished with the first gallery, I moved on to the Hall of Sacred Mirrors. The Hall of Sacred Mirrors is what Alex Grey is most known for, and what his whole place is named after. The large, dimly lit room holds 21 large (4x10 ft) panels, or mirrors, which examine the mind, body, and spirit. They depict the human body in various forms, from full, nude African American, Chinese, and Caucasian men and women, to the isolated nervous system, and right down to the base skeleton. I found the Hall to be extremely interesting but for whatever reason, I wasnt gripped in the way that as I was with the first gallery, so I decided to move on to the last gallery. The MicroCoSM gallery featured work by Alex Greys wife, Allyson. It was a bare, square, white room, with a series of small (1x1 ft) panels. These panels all featured random, overlapping pixelated grids; some pixels were filled with color, and others were

left blank. The panels, to me, seemed very similar to one another, and I couldnt comprehend what Allyson was trying to convey through them. There were no descriptions next to the artwork and after a quick look through, I decided to head out. I left the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors an extremely satisfied individual. For the mere price of $5 I got to view the fascinating, detailed works of Alex Grey in a comfortable and relaxing environment. The only improvement that I could suggest would be to staff someone behind the front desk, as I was uncertain how to proceed upon my arrival. Aside from that, I had an amazing time at Alex Greys gallery and would not hesitate to return in the future.