‘Sorcery of Images’ opened at Marciano
TRI-SCREEN IMAGES showcase Corita Kent’s observations of the world around her.
Sister Corita Kent, 1918-1986, is best known for her message of faith, love, and peace as expressed in her pop art serigraphs, silk-screened prints. She was also acclaimed for her social activism and for building community as an innovative art teacher and art department chair at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She belonged to the Immaculate Heart of Mary order, which she left in 1968. The Marciano Art Foundation (MAF), in conjunction with the Corita Art Center, which is dedicated to preserving Corita Kent’s legacy, presents a different side of the prolific artist in the exhibition “Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images.” Sister Corita, or just Corita, as she is known, documented student activities, everyday people, community gatherings, and street scenes which were a source of inspiration on their own and for her art practice. The Corita Art Center archives have more than 15,000, 35mm slides, recently digitized, that Kent made between 1955 and 1968. Over 1,100 of those images are currently showcased at MAF. In a large, dark room, a 45-minute presentation of three slides at a time are alternately projected onto adjacent screens in an inspiring and vivid display. From colorful buttons to flower-crowned protestors, Kent’s slides captured the zeitgeist of the time.
CIRCUS ALPHABET posters (partial view) by Sister Corita Kent introduce visitors to the artist, 1968.
“She was a true poet of the everyday. This is a time capsule of our city,” explained MAF Director and exhibit Co-curator Hanneke Skerath. “Corita used beauty and joy as a form of resistance.”
Kent was named Woman of the Year in 1966 by the Los Angeles Times, graced the cover of Newsweek in 1967 and posthumously received an American Institute of Graphic Arts medal in 2016.
SISTER MARY CORITA and Sister Magdalen Mary, IHM, Paris, France, 1959, 35 mm slide, Corita Slide Collection, Corita Art Center.
A companion exhibit, “Irregularity: Corita and Immaculate Heart College’s Rule Breaking Designs,” is on view in the Marciano Art Foundation library. Material from Kent’s years as a teacher offers further insight into the artist’s practice.
MAF will host Corita Art Center’s annual Corita Day on Sat., Nov. 22, 2025. For more information, go to marcianoartfoundation.org.
“Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images,” Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd., 323-204-7555, marcianoartfoundation.org. Exhibit runs through January 24, 2026.
Category: Entertainment
