Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts

Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts fosters residencies, gatherings, exhibitions, and fellowship

Residencies
Based in Charleston, South Carolina, we offer a fully-funded residency program with juried selection, alongside less structured residency retreats for individuals and small groups. Gatherings
Talks, workshops, screenings, performances, festivals, and discussions with artists and religious practitioners online and in New York City, Charleston, and select locations. Exhibitions
Tradition

al and experimental exhibitions, showcasing visual, performative, literary, and other forms of creative works in artistic and religious spaces both in-person and online. Fellowship
A six-month professional development program for scholars and art managers to gain practical experience in administration, graphic design, fundraising, programming, and public relations.

At Palazzo Diedo, the exhibition Strange Rules introduces the concept of Protocol Art, a practice that engages with the ...
08/13/2026

At Palazzo Diedo, the exhibition Strange Rules introduces the concept of Protocol Art, a practice that engages with the underlying rules that dictate how culture is produced, distributed, and perceived in a digital age. These rules frequently manifest as algorithms, artificial intelligence models, computer protocols, platforms, and various technological infrastructures.

Trevor Paglen's Voyager explores the increasingly porous boundary between human consciousness and technological systems. The work uses biofeedback software, pulse sensors, hypnotic audio, and an isolation booth to create an intimate encounter in which the visitor's own body becomes part of the artwork.

Paglen's work is especially compelling as a meditation on attention, consciousness, and the unseen forces that shape our experiences. Voyager invites us to consider what happens when technologies designed to measure and regulate the body begin to resemble instruments of contemplation—inviting altered states of awareness while quietly questioning who, or what, is directing our attention.

Photos by Joan Porcel Studio and Matteo Catania, Hubove Studio; Palazzo Diedo Berggruen Arts & Culture; and Pace Gallery.

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Gabrielle Goliath's “Elegy” transforms mourning into a sacred practice of presence. Set within the historic Chiesa di Sa...
08/04/2026

Gabrielle Goliath's “Elegy” transforms mourning into a sacred practice of presence. Set within the historic Chiesa di Sant'Antonin in Venice, the immersive installation gathers three suites of performances in which seven women sustain a single continuous note, passing breath and voice from one another in an hour-long ritual of lament, remembrance, and care.

For more than a decade, Goliath has developed “Elegy” as what she calls "a life-work of mourning"—a meditation on lives lost to violence that refuses spectacle in favor of tenderness. Each sustained tone becomes both prayer and vigil, affirming that grief is not a private emotion but a communal and ethical practice capable of binding strangers together across histories, geographies, and generations.

Rather than seeking resolution, Goliath invites viewers to dwell within a shared breath that honors the dead while renewing our responsibility to the living.

Image credits: Installation views of "Elegy" in Venice. Courtesy of Gabrielle Goliath (gabriellegoliath.com).

One of the standout works we encountered at Frieze in May, presented by Mendes Wood DM, was Antonio Obá’s “Noivo = Negro...
06/25/2026

One of the standout works we encountered at Frieze in May, presented by Mendes Wood DM, was Antonio Obá’s “Noivo = Negro Spiritual | Cantares,” which draws upon the mystical poetry of Farid ud-Din Attar and the spiritual journey described in “The Conference of the Birds,” where the soul undertakes a search for the divine. At the center of the painting stands a solitary figure in a state of anticipation — a groom who evokes, without directly depicting, the whirling dervishes of Sufi tradition and their pursuit of transcendence through devotion, movement, and longing.

Obá’s figure occupies a liminal space between masculine and feminine, lover and beloved, suggesting a spiritual search that unfolds through paradox and transformation. The work also recalls the language of the biblical Song of Songs, where desire becomes a metaphor for divine union. Incense smoke rises through the composition as a sign of prayer and spiritual elevation.

Among the many works on view at the fair, Obá’s painting stood out for its rare and deeply considered engagement with mystical traditions across cultures, inviting viewers into a space of contemplation, yearning, and spiritual possibility.

Antonio Obá, “Noivo = Negro Spiritual | Cantares” (installation view), 2026

On June 19, the National Gallery in London hosted a fascinating program with artist Shirazeh Houshiary and the museum’s ...
06/23/2026

On June 19, the National Gallery in London hosted a fascinating program with artist Shirazeh Houshiary and the museum’s director, Sir Gabriele Finaldi, in conjunction with the current Zubarán exhibition. They discussed the ways in Houshiary’s practice has been influenced by Zubarán (1598–1664). This influence is most prominently seen in Houshiary’s “East Window” at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in London, which was inspired by Zubarán’s painting, “The Veil of St. Veronica,” which depicts a cloth with an image of Christ’s head. The program concluded in a very special way with a moving choral performance by St Martin’s Voices, featuring a selection of sacred music chosen in response to the exhibition. Houshiary was featured in a video interview with Tyler Rollins at her studio in London last summer. See that video at the link in our bio.

Tyler Rollins with Shirazeh Houshiary
Shirazeh Houshiary, “East Window” (interior), 2007, St. Martins-in-the-Fields
Francisco de Zurbarán, “The Veil of Saint Veronica” (installation view), 1658
Sir Gabriele Finaldi and Shirazeh Houshiary
St Martin’s Voices





05/27/2026

On Monday night, Mother Emanuel AME Church became a space for remembrance, reflection, renewal, and profound spiritual communion as acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines and THE TRUTH made their Festival debut with REVIVAL. Produced by Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts in collaboration with Spoleto Festival USA.

Midway through Season 4 of Visually Sacred, Arthur Aghajanian’s conversations on material religion continue to explore h...
05/07/2026

Midway through Season 4 of Visually Sacred, Arthur Aghajanian’s conversations on material religion continue to explore how images, objects, architecture, ritual, and contemporary art shape the lived experience of faith.

From sacred space and liturgy to museums, contemporary art, and everyday devotional practices, this season asks how the sacred becomes tangible — and how visual culture continues to mediate belief, memory, wonder, and transcendence in contemporary life.

New episodes continue throughout the season.

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) synagogue 130 West 30th Street New York NY (view from street)
Gabriel Dharmoo, performing Anthropologies imaginaires, Photo by Jan Gates
Nadia Huggins, “Black & Blue - Canaries, Saint Lucia” (detail), 2011

In Origin of the Tiger, Yu Ji presents a constellation of sculptural forms that treat the body as both artifact and land...
04/07/2026

In Origin of the Tiger, Yu Ji presents a constellation of sculptural forms that treat the body as both artifact and landscape, drawing on mythic and religious imagery to explore how spiritual meaning accumulates in material over time. Cast in concrete and embedded with metal and organic fragments, her figures appear at once contemporary and archaeological—objects that feel as though they have been excavated rather than newly made.

A key point of reference is the monolithic ancient sculpture of Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana, an image from Hindu mythology in which divine strength manifests through a protective, sheltering gesture. This monumental precedent informs Yu Ji’s interest in how sculptural bodies can operate as sites of endurance, support, and cosmological symbolism.

Alongside such references, the recurring tiger motif invokes its role within Chinese cosmology as a guardian and mediator between visible and invisible realms. By placing these mythic structures in dialogue, Yu Ji constructs a sculptural language that traverses geographies and belief systems, suggesting that the human body can itself function as a bearer of spiritual narrative.

Rather than illustrating religion directly, Origin of the Tiger examines how myth, ritual memory, and sacred iconography persist as formal and material pressures within contemporary sculpture, shaping how we read bodies, monuments, and the passage of time.

Yu Ji, “Origin of the Tiger” (installation view), 2026
Yu Ji, “Flesh in Stone - Anthropos VI,” 2026
Yu Ji, “Flesh in Stone No. 11,” 2025
Yu Ji, “Origin of the Tiger” (installation view), 2026
Yu Ji, “Play Know Attention - MEDIUM,” 2026
Yu Ji, “Origin of the Tiger” (installation view), 2026

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