THE DREAMGATE
The Space Series by Michael Newberry

Dreamgate: A Temple of the Human Spirit

I have a vision for a permanent home to exhibit The Space Series, a collection of monumental figurative works of human gods and goddesses set against the backdrop of the cosmos. This series represents a revolutionary advancement in color and light theory and embodies the idea that our shadowed selves should be transparent, while it is the light that defines us.

Dreamgate: A Temple of the Human Spirit will be a sanctuary. It will serve as a permanent space for The Space Series, a collection of about 20 monumental paintings that show a pantheon of modern emergence of human beings from the primordial soup of the universe.

The project is inspired by radiance and sublimity. Dreamgate will be a temple dedicated to art awakening human potential. It would find its permanent home within the Newberry Museum, a space dedicated to the vision of humanism and figurative art.

The Space Series of Gods and Goddesses set against a backdrop of nebulae. But even before the Titans, there existed even more primordial gods—forces of chaos, night, and deep elemental power. These were the first beings to emerge from Chaos, the void or gap at the beginning of time. They represent fundamental forces of existence.

I started the project in August of 2022. There are fascinating techno/emotional/philosophic themes that connect each piece:
-An individual or couple is/are at the center of the universe, a canvas is a metaphor for the universe.
-The shadows of the figures are transparent, showing the stuff of the universe within, but it is light which defines them.
-Each painting has a unique color scheme, which is based on my color theory of integrating space, light, atmosphere, and the color of the thing.
-They are all at their physical peak. In a painting, if the body is a metaphor for the human spirit, then age and deformities act as chains holding back the spirit.
-Every painting is 64x48”.

We are riding the crest of a wave of 40,000 years of figurative art. It is objectively the birth, the catalyst, and the support of human cognition, bringing together perception, emotion, and thought. Figurative art predates religion, language, and civilization by 35,000 years, and engagement with figurative art is universal to every human who ever existed—and it is programmed into our DNA, evidenced by three- and four-year-olds drawing figurative subjects. Figurative art is also what first distinguished us from other lifeforms. Additionally, figurative art is inherently human, belonging to everyone regardless of race, religion, or tribe.

For more info about Michael Newberry visit his art hub: MichaelNewberry.com