Cyberangels Fly to University of Kentucky Art Museum in Lexington from Israel Museum in Jerusalem

Artist Mel Alexenberg launches cyberangels from Israel to thirty museums throughout the world as an homage to Rembrandt on the 350th anniversary of his death. These museums have Rembrandt inspired artworks by Alexenberg in their collections. At Global Tribute to Rembrandt are posts for each of the museums and texts on the impact of digital culture on art by the artist, former art professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.

“He had a vision in a dream. A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as Divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28:12) Angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and go down throughout the world.

Top image: Rembrandt inspired cyberangels arrive from Israel in time for lunch at the Lemon Tree Restaurant operated by University of Kentucky dietetic and hospitality management students to learn quantity foods production using Kentucky-grown foods.

The biblical words for angel and food are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to teach that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life. It is fortuitous that the University of Kentucky Art Museum exhibition from June to August 2019 was “Off the Menu: Looking at Food.” This exhibition featured work from the Museum’s permanent collection, as well as art borrowed from galleries and studios in Lexington and beyond, to reveal how food can be used to investigate notions of nourishment, ritual, desire, and popular culture. See https://finearts.uky.edu/art-museum/exhibitions/menu-looking-food.

Second image: The cyberangels begin their flight from the Israel Museum's Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, home of ancient Bible scrolls. They gain momentum by going up from the tallest building in Israel, home of Facebook’s R&D Center, until construction is completed for the 91 story Azrieli Spiral Tower in Tel Aviv with the shape of a Bible scroll.

Third image: Cyberangels spiral up from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel on a smartphone screen on Mel Alexenberg’s newest book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. They launch the book throughout the world from the artist/author’s studio in Israel. See praise for the book at Israel365.

Bottom image: Alexenberg’s lithograph “Long Island Angels” that is in the collection of University of Kentucky Art Museum.  See The New York Times article about cyberangels connecting Long Island to the 48 states of continental USA. 

In tribute to Rembrandt on the 350^th year of his death, his digitized angels dormant in the museum’s flat files awaken to adorn the cover of the 2019 book Through a Bible Lens.  The Rembrandt inspired cyberangels fly from the book cover to Lexington, Kentucky.