PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Howard M. Nowes, Sebastian Fernandez, and Dr. David Zemanek cordially invite you to the group exhibition

Crossing Cultures: Monumental Miniatures
Curation: Howard M. Nowes, Sebastian Fernandez, Dr. David Zemanek
Metal, Wood, and Golden Treasures from the Pre-Columbian World, Burkina Faso, and Africa
May 28 – June 1, 2025;  Vernissage, Thurs May 29th; 7 to 10pm
Art for Eternity Gallery | 303 East 81st Street, New York NY 10028

Art for Eternity is pleased to present Crossing Cultures: Monumental Miniatures, a focused and cross-cultural exhibition that explores the expressive, spiritual, and technical sophistication of small-scale art objects across three geographically and historically distinct traditions: the Pre-Columbian Americas, the West African region of Burkina Faso, and a curated selection of African power figures.

The exhibition offers a scholarly yet deeply humanistic inquiry into the cultural and symbolic potency of miniature works. Too often dismissed as decorative or peripheral, these small-scale artefacts defy expectations—revealing instead a remarkable density of meaning and a level of craftsmanship that demands extraordinary precision and care. Far from marginal, these works were central to ritual, domestic, and cosmological life. Their scale, far from limiting their significance, heightens their intensity, intimacy, and impact.

The objects on view include finely wrought Pre-Columbian gold and wooden works—created by master artisans of the Muisca, Quimbaya, and Tairona cultures—whose refined forms speak to both technical mastery and the deep interrelation of art, ceremony, and cosmology. Ritual metalworks from Burkina Faso, shaped in accordance with centuries-old smithing traditions, reflect conceptions of lineage, protection, and metaphysical balance. Complementing these are African power figures: sculptural forms charged with spiritual energy, intended not merely as representations, but as living agents within the social and spiritual fabric of the community.

Uniting these diverse traditions is a shared material intelligence and a reverence for the object as a vessel of meaning. Whether through the luminous sheen of gold, the aged patina of iron, or the tactile grain of wood, each piece attests to the transformative capacity of matter in the hands of the devoted maker. These objects are not passive relics, but dynamic entities: invoked, worn, touched, and treasured. They embody the intersection of function, form, and belief.

Crossing Cultures: Monumental Miniatures seeks to challenge Eurocentric notions of monumentality by inviting viewers to reconsider how scale, intimacy, and artistic power are defined. The exhibition underscores the universality of the human impulse to honor the sacred, the ancestral, and the beautiful—not through grandiose gestures, but through the concentrated elegance of the miniature.

The exhibition takes place to salute the reopening of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts reinstallation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing   The wing, which houses the museum's collections of African, Art of Ancient America and Oceania, underwent a significant transformation, including design and technological upgrades. 

For press enquiries, images, or further information, please contact:

Art for Eternity 
303 East 81st Street
New York, NY 10028
Phone: (917) 733-4165
Email: hnowes@gmail.com