Jupiter Optimus Maximus

The exhibition Jupiter Optimus Maximus is the first presentation of the collaborative five-year project of the same name by three artists, painter Robert Ruckman, mixed-media artist William Fields, and experimental musician Samuel Allen Taylor. The project places the work of these three distinct artistic voices within one overarching spiritual vision to create a multimedia space that inspires awe and reflection. Taking inspiration from the ancient histories of hermeticism, these unified artworks are expressions of what these three artists call a “dwelling place.” Made up of twelve large-scale paintings by Ruckman, twelve oversize drawings by Fields, and twelve electro-acoustic sound signatures by Taylor, each work captures the essence or character of twelve multi-dimensional intelligences, elements that embody diverse forces in the natural world, such as electromagnetism, radiation, gravitation, crystallization, cause/effect, or equilibrium. As Tom Patterson writes, Ruckman, Fields, and Taylor “see (and hear) their creative efforts for this project as parts of a unity, a single work or ‘force field’ with multiple facets—an aesthetic transmission from a particular sector of a magical universe through three human mediums or creative conduits—to be experienced in toto.” Visitors will experience a meditative space, rich in color, enhanced by a vivid soundscape, and driven by emergent forms.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website