The world has lost a leading visionary artist in Paul Laffoley, who passed away on November 16th, 2015. His paintings featured mandala-like imagery, making heavy use of text and trans-disciplinary symbolic elements. His architectural background comes through in his depictions of complex spiritual ideas, providing a sense of looking at the blueprints of the subtle structure of reality.
Mind Physics: The Burning of Samsara in Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics
From the Official Paul Laffoley Website:
The visionary artist and luminary, Paul Laffoley, had died after a long battle with congestive heart failure. He had an extraordinary grasp of multiple fields of knowledge compulsively pursing interests that often lead him into uncharted territory. His complex theoretical constructs were uniquely presented in highly detailed mandala-like canvases largely scaled to Fibonacci’s golden ratio. While an active participant in numerous speculative organizations including his own Boston Visionary Cell since the early 70s, his work began to attract an increasing following in his late career with shows at the Palais de Tokyo (2009), the Nationalgalerie/Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin (2011), and the Hayward Gallery, London, the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and the Yerba Buena Center in 2013. The first book on Laffoley’s oeuvre was published by Kent Fine Art in 1989, followed by several subsequent publications beginning with his first retrospective organized by the Austin Museum of Art (1999). Forthcoming in March of 2016, the University of Chicago Press will be releasing the long awaited book entitled The Essential Paul Laffoley. He was a kind and generous giant, and he will be sorely missed by all of us.
Paul Laffoley was one of the visionary artists featured in Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics.
