Henry Orlik's 7th Avenue stands as one of the most intellectually stimulating and symbolically dense paintings to emerge from 1980s Manhattan. It transforms L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz into a profound meditation on consciousness, transformation, and the irreversible nature of spiritual awakening. Executed on a perfect square canvas measuring 123 x 123 centimetres, this mandala-like composition creates what Carl Jung would recognise as a direct encounter with the collective unconscious, where personal mythology intersects with archetypal forces that govern human existence.

The painting's most immediately striking feature occupies the upper left quadrant: the Manus Dei, or Hand of God, a symbol of divine intervention, emerging from what appears to be the transparent fuselage of an aircraft. This extraordinary synthesis suggests that divine presence manifests even within our technological age, not as the transcendent deity of traditional theology but as a mystical, immanent force permeating all matter and energy. The aircraft's see-through construction, a symbol of transparency and openness and the duality of being and non-being, reveals its interior populated by red dots, like the design on jolly underwear, injecting humour into this serious theological consideration while suggesting that the sacred and the ridiculous are separated by the thinnest of membranes. Sacred and secular interweave.

Above the plane-angel, disappearing into the top left corner flies a medieval hairy devil with a forked tail and chicken foot; a frisky shadow figure who engages in a fun game of cosmic chase between good and evil. This chase, a metaphor for the eternal struggle between light and darkness, is depicted in a mischievous rather than malevolent gesture. The devil's foot, which is also a hand, reaches to pinch the plane-angel between the forefinger and thumb, a playful yet profound reflection of Orlik's mature spiritual understanding that recognises opposition as necessary for movement and meaning as states of darkness are constant companions to light; you cannot experience one without the other.

In the opposite top right corner, a similar cosmic battle of unification unfolds. This battle is shaped by modern psychological discourse and features the shapely leg of a woman which disappears off the canvas edge. She wears witchy-green stockings and Dorothy's shiny red slipper, though the innocent ruby footwear has transformed into sexy red stiletto, beneath a flowing white dress. This figure represents the psychological integration that Jung termed shadow work: the Good Witch, Wicked Witch, and brave young Dorothy have been rolled into one complex personality. The Jungian shadow has been acknowledged, accepted, and incorporated rather than transcended or eliminated.

Attached to this celestial appendage, the angel's wings spread out, their falling feathers twisting in a manner that functions simultaneously as a divine message and a blessing. Their double helix spin brings forth suggestions of the correspondences found in modern life, the imagination and mythology: the Wizard of Oz’s twisting tornado; the physical structure of DNA; the intertwining of the serpents, the dual forces of life, on the psychopomp Hermes’s Caduceus as he takes souls between worlds; and the spinning of Daoist Fuxi and Nuwa, the prototype and intertwining creators of yin and yang.

The feathers float and above them, they encounter the Madonna lactans imagery: a pair of breasts emitting streams of milk that hang suspended between heaven and earth. This transformation of the nursing mother archetype into a cosmic principle of sustenance gives rise to a complex meditation on the sacred and erotic dimensions of feminine nourishment and receptivity, drawing on mystical traditions from the Song of Songs to Rumi’s Sufi poetry, where physical desire is a metaphor for spiritual longing.

The balloon that was meant to carry Dorothy back to Kansas has vanished, leaving only the basket floating in the air with dangling strings as if it has become the balloon itself. This image encapsulates Orlik's central insight: there is no return to innocence, "just whatever is next." The immigrant experience, like the spiritual journey, involves a transformative process that is irreversible and irrevocable. America represents not a temporary adventure but a fundamental change in being, inspiring a sense of enlightenment and transformation in the audience.

The composition's background pulses with Orlik's revolutionary ‘excitation’ technique: thousands of tiny, spiralling brushstrokes that represent what he called the quantum field underlying all existence. These marks possess what the artist described as ‘the sensitivity of a lie detector’, directly reflecting his emotional state during their creation. Each spiral contributes to the painting's overall energetic field while allowing individual elements to emerge from and dissolve back into pure kinetic force. This technique creates what Orlik termed a ‘living line’, visualising qi as ‘a cosmic spirit that vitalises all things’.

A washing line hangs from a tree crowned with a watchful lashed eye which observes the cosmic events. This surveillance carries profound implications: trees are alive, just like we are, they think, and so does the eye. The artist's panpsychist vision suggests that consciousness permeates all of nature, not limited to human beings but extending throughout the natural world. The eye serves multiple functions within the composition: witness, judge, and participant in the cosmic drama.

Rising through the centre, a circular, winding road unrolls like an old piece of film before finishing abruptly. This image operates on multiple levels: the literal end of the physical journey, the metaphorical conclusion of life's path, and the formal device suggesting cinema's capacity to freeze temporal flow into the eternal present. The road's spiral structure echoes the mandala's sacred geometry while its sudden termination poses the eternal question: "Is it the end of the road?"

The formal analysis reveals Orlik's sophisticated understanding of pictorial space as psychological territory. The square format creates a mandala structure, as recognised by Tibetan Buddhism: a sacred enclosure where spiritual transformation occurs. However, Orlik's mandala refuses static completion, pulsing instead with what he called 'excitations.' These 'excitations' are the dynamic elements in the painting that suggest constant flux and becoming rather than achieved enlightenment, reflecting Orlik's belief in the continuous process of spiritual transformation.

The painting's relationship to The Wizard of Oz extends far beyond nostalgic reference. Baum's ‘twister’ becomes a metaphor for art's transformative power: the ability to lift consciousness from mundane reality into realms of extraordinary possibility. The scattered elements throughout Orlik's composition suggest that the journey to Oz remains incomplete or perhaps that the actual journey involves perpetual movement between worlds of ordinary and non-ordinary reality. The work's temporal structure creates the "eternal present," where medieval iconography coexists with contemporary technology, ancient archetypes dance with modern anxieties, and mythological narratives intersect with personal memory. This compression reflects Orlik's understanding that the psyche operates outside linear time, existing in a realm where all possibilities remain simultaneously accessible, ‘where past and future are gathered’ (T. S. Eliot, ‘Burnt Norton’, The Four Quartets).

The painting's treatment of gender proves particularly sophisticated. The integration of witch imagery represents not only a comfortable resolution but also dynamic tension that generates creative energy, captivating the audience's interest. The shadow is not eliminated but instead incorporated and transformed into a source of power and authenticity. The Madonna lactans combined with the sexualised leg suggests that erotic energy functions as a cosmic, generative force rather than being separate from spiritual experience.

For Orlik personally, 7th Avenue represents a culmination of his understanding of displacement and transformation. Born into post-war upheaval as the child of Polish-Belarusian refugees, the artist lived what Dorothy experiences: irreversible transportation from familiar territory into realms that demand fundamental reconstitution of identity. The painting suggests that this displacement, rather than being a traumatic loss, constitutes necessary preparation for expanded consciousness. The work anticipates contemporary discussions about the nature of reality, the interconnectedness of apparent opposites, and the possibility of consciousness existing beyond conventional physical boundaries. Orlik's vision of reality as constructed multiplicity rather than unified essence resonates with current neuroscientific understanding while remaining grounded in lived psychological truth.

The painting's prophetic dimension lies not in predicting specific events but in its articulation of archetypal patterns that continue to govern human experience. The cosmic chase between good and evil, the irreversible nature of transformation, the integration of shadow elements, and the recognition that "there is no return" speak to universal aspects of psychological and spiritual development that transcend historical circumstances.

In our contemporary moment of global displacement, technological acceleration, and widespread psychological fragmentation, Orlik's vision assumes renewed urgency. The painting suggests that authentic existence emerges not from a fixed identity but from conscious participation in larger patterns of cosmic organisation. The mandala-like construction of consciousness it presents seems particularly suited to navigate contemporary existence's psychological demands.

7th Avenue achieves what the most excellent visionary art accomplishes: the creation of a new visual language capable of expressing previously inarticulate aspects of human experience. Through its synthesis of medieval iconography with quantum-informed aesthetics, its integration of sacred and profane imagery, and its transformation of popular mythology into profound psychological investigation, the work demonstrates art's capacity to make visible the invisible structures that govern consciousness itself.

The painting stands as an attestation to the immigrant artist's unique perspective: positioned between worlds, capable of seeing both the beauty and limitations of the adopted culture while maintaining access to wisdom traditions that predate contemporary assumptions. Orlik's achievement lies in translating this liminal position into the visual revelation that speaks to the universal human experience.

Ultimately, 7th Avenue presents consciousness not as an individual possession but as a cosmic process in which personal transformation participates in universal evolution. The work suggests that when individual vision reaches sufficient depth and technical mastery, it inevitably touches collective dimensions of human awareness. In this extraordinary mandala, we encounter not merely one artist's spiritual journey, but a map for navigating the psychological territories that await anyone willing to abandon the safety of Kansas for the transformative uncertainties of Oz, recognising that the true magic lies not in reaching a destination, but in becoming worthy of the journey itself.