Is it possible for art to channel prophecies?

Deanna Musgrave was approached by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 2019 to create a large work for the Elizabeth Currie Gallery. She immediately began creating a painting called “Transcendence” on the subject of the apocalypse, in its various forms in art history. Imagine what it was like to continue developing the paintings through the catastrophic events that began in 2020? Of importance, the artwork is inspired by the original meaning of the word apocalypse as “a revealing of truth that was once hidden.” The painting is placed across from Salvador Dali’s “Santiago El Grande” and is connected to it through various visual references. In addition, she has also included two complimentary circular paintings called “Warrior” and “Nurturer” which sit between Dali’s and Musgrave’s large artworks, almost acting as negotiators between the two contrasting energies. The paintings ask the question if colours, symbols, music, and sounds can bring balance to extreme polarities?  

In early 2020, CBC ARTS and Matthew Brown interviewed Musgrave halfway through the project:

Musgrave would like to acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, ARTSNB and the staff at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.