THE PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY PRESENTS
EXHIBITION OF NEW MIXED MEDIA WORK BY BRIAN MERRIAM
In Every Flower The Face of God
an exhibition of new mixed media work by Brian Merriam
The Hansell Gallery at The Philosophical Research Society
3910 Los Feliz Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90027
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 12th, 2026 6-9pm
Free and Open to the Public
Exhibit Runs March 12-April 23, 2026
Gallery Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays 12-6pm and by appointment (info@prs.org)
LOS ANGELES – The Philosophical Research Society (PRS) is pleased to present a solo exhibition of mixed media work by Brian Merriam titled In Every Flower The Face of God.
Inhered within all sacred objects is a seed of the eternal, a transcendent embryo that blossoms into embodied symbol. As these metaphysical kernels take on three-dimensionality, via structure and image, they become subject to the truths and paradoxes of temporal existence. Symbol as such is carried via geometry, element, planet, deity. Shape alone may convey the sacred, as can a dynamic relationship, unfixed and definable only as a system. Although esoteric in nature, these symbols are not ambiguous in their intensity or familiarity: we recognize them as emissaries from deeper orders of reality and as satellites of our own soul. The sacred object thus belongs to both time and timelessness, bound to the laws of the universe within which it is contained, as well as to the principles that govern the numinous realm wherefrom it was seeded. In this way, symbol is a material substance all its own, just as materiality itself is symbolic.
In his solo exhibition, In Every Flower the Face of God, artist Brian Merriam generates his own semiotics, building sets of resonances and relationships that organize into symbol via image and objecthood. Through explorations in mixed media, with photography at the core, Merriam creates pieces that feel like venerated artifacts from alternate timelines. Number and correspondence cohere into a language of magnitude and mystery. Opposing forces create integrative binaries: gold and silver, sun and moon, harmony and disorder. Pairs, triplets and tetrads expand the play between scales of physicality. Spider webs converse with the structure of the milky way, spiraled geoglyphs with cymatics conjured in mercury. Patterns formed in ethereal mediums challenge the solidity of stones marked with impressed handprints, reminiscent of those left by bodhisattvas.
In this collection, Merriam not only uses number and relationship to build his symbolic lexicon, but also time, texture, color and light. Earthen hued paper, collected from the artist’s travels in Nepal, is stacked upon itself, creating geological strata of texture and depth. Cloudlike wood compositions, cut from dynamic hand-drawn shapes, are saturated with saffron, worked and reworked in a dance of wear and abrasion. The presence of gold blurs the line between halo and shadow. Images, created and destabilized, are honored by concentrated light and negative space. Physical terrains are birthed from processes of reduction and accretion, as the photograph is liberated from its convention as a two-dimensional entity. Shapes and content are hollowed and layered, creating typographies and wormholes, tying the third-dimension to the fourth. The end result is a constellation of charged holy relics, pulled from the walls of monasteries found in other dimensions.
Some of the images used throughout the exhibition have been featured in the artist’s previous work, including his 2024 book The Absolute Recedes. These images will certainly evolve further as he continues to construct his own visual mythos. Merriam’s work exists at the juncture between time and eternity, in deep relation with the foundational structures of reality. The symbolic becomes concretized as sacred object in much the same way that holy syllables, when organized, become a mantra. At the heart of this collection is an Upanishadic understanding that within every individual instance of boundaried reality, there exists both the pull towards three-dimensional embodiment and the seed of total transcendence.
Brian Merriam (b.1982) is an artist and musician living in Los Angeles, CA. His work in photography and mixed media focuses on the symbolic aspects of the natural world and their interplay, reflection and correlation across all scales. He was selected as a contributing artist by the Philosophical Research Society in 2025.
https://www.prs.org/in-every-flower-the-face-of-god.html
The Philosophical Research Society is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit institution founded in 1934 as a repository of multicultural wisdom sources and a center of arts and learning. The mission of PRS is to study, conserve, teach, and publish knowledge of the principles of philosophy, religion, science and art, from all cultures and throughout history, in a universal and nonsectarian way. We provide an educational center, an art gallery and public art and performance space, publications, and an esoteric philosophical research library to benefit all who seek the wisdom to live in harmony with themselves, their communities, and the wider world.
Parking
We encourage attendees to consider carpooling, walking or biking to events if possible, and please be considerate of our Los Feliz neighbors when parking. Street parking is available on Griffith Park Blvd. and (after 7 PM) on Los Feliz Blvd. Limited parking is available onsite at PRS in the front lot (entry from Los Feliz Blvd. when heading east). For ADA assistance, please reach out to us in advance via email (events@prs.org) or phone (323.663.2167) and provide an email or number we can contact you at.
