THE ART OF MATHEMATICS: For artist with

Geometry is the field of mathematics concerned with the properties, measurement and relationships of points, lines, angles, surfaces and solids. But for artist Vandorn Hinnant, geometry has a

much deeper, cosmological significance. He has spent the last 20 years exploring this notion in his art, as reflected in his solo exhibition "Sacred Geometry: Of Numbers and Other Mysteries," at the Delta Arts Center through Sept. 26.

"My work seeks to serve as a visual bridge between the physical sciences and the science of consciousness," Hinnant wrote in a statement, noting that all of his art references "the geometry of life."

A Greensboro native now living in Durham, Hinnant has shown his work at all of the Piedmont Triad's main visual-art venues at one time or another over the past 20 years, and has also exhibited elsewhere in the Southeast and in New York. But his Delta exhibition is probably his largest solo show to date, he said. It includes 32 of the works on paper that have always been his specialty, including a few that date back to the early 1980s.

Hinnant, who has been making art "ever since I could pick up a pencil," worked as a mechanical and electrical draftsman during the late 1970s. In 1981 he earned a bachelor's degree in studio art at North Carolina A & T University, and during his years there he pursued related studies in the art department at UNC Greensboro. In the early 1980s he also spent a year in New York working as an intaglio printmaker.

Hinnant said that he has always tended toward abstraction in his art, despite some of his teachers' advice to the contrary. What he views as the major turning point in his work stemmed from a propitious meeting 20 years ago with Robert L. Powell, a physicist whose interest in geometry dovetailed with parallel investigations into mysticism. A two-day workshop led by Powell in Winston-Salem in August 1989 set Hinnant off on the creative path he continues to pursue. (Retired as a professor of physics at Texas Southern University, Powell now lives in Greensboro.)

Rooted in geometry

Taking an approach rooted in the geometric principles established by Euclid, the ancient Greek mathematician, Hinnant endeavors to create "compositions that furnish a working definition of balance, order, beauty, harmony, the fractal, and dynamic and radial symmetry," he wrote in a statement about the Delta exhibition. The precisely rendered, usually symmetrical geometric forms and formal configurations in most of the drawings he has made since 1989 are intended to remind viewers of "the notion that life is well organized, and that consciousness is at the center of this organization."

These works are dominated by circles, triangles and rectangles that Hinnant made using a compass and straightedge. The forms overlap and intersect to create dynamically symmetrical abstract mandalas. The colors in these geometric compositions are lush and delicately shaded, and some of the forms appear to emanate radiant light, as if they were backlit or surrounded by luminous auras.

Before he fell under Powell's influence and began making his precisely geometric drawings, Hinnant drew and painted looser forms in works that he has characterized as "organic abstraction." One example of this approach in the show is his 1982 drawing Mysterious Traveler, in which three vaguely pod-like magenta forms and a few loose yellow and blue markings float above an irregularly shaped, horizontal patch of green.

Significant among the show's drawings made relatively soon after Hinnant began his work with precision geometry is Annunciation, one of the larger works here. Dating from 1991, this predominantly red and green, acrylic and color-pencil composition dynamically fuses the organic and the geometric. Its loose, abstract-expressionist brushstrokes -- the organic component -- serve as a backdrop for a tripartite configuration of circles, triangles and squares, including a central square containing a handwritten text. The text, addressed to "insoluble infinity," functions as both poem and prayer, while concisely expressing the mystical sensibility that drives Hinnant's interest in sacred geometry.

Organic impulses

Although drawings with precisely rendered geometric elements dominate the exhibition, Hinnant obviously didn't use a straight edge or compass to create a group of relatively recent drawings that are among the show's smaller works. The geometric elements in these small drawings on brown paper were clearly drawn freehand and with some degree of spontaneity, indicating that Hinnant's organic and geometric impulses continue to coexist harmonically.

Made within the past four years, these organically geometric drawings suggest magical diagrams whose markings carry symbolic cosmic meaning. Also intriguing are their titles, which contain references to Plato, Martin Luther King, Spanish surrealist Joan Miro, the spiritual traditions of Africa's Yoruba people, ancient mystery cults and reincarnation. In a text panel posted alongside this group of drawings, Hinnant reveals that many of them "represent a sentient being broadcasting or communicating a message between distances, or worlds, or dimensions."

At the center of the exhibition are its only sculptural components -- a trio of three-dimensional geometric forms cut out and assembled from dark cardboard augmented with pencil shading, all suspended from the ceiling. Excerpted from a larger installation that Hinnant created in 1997 and exhibited elsewhere, they indicate promising possibilities for further sculptural endeavors.

■ Vandorn Hinnant's exhibition "Sacred Geometry: Of Numbers and Other Mysteries" will remain on view through Sept. 26 at the Delta Arts Center, at 2611 New Walkertown Road. For more information, call 722-2625.