Suspended Animation, engaging miniature acrobatic figures by Bette Brodsky, will be in the spotlight Oct. 20 - 22 at Ernesto Mayans Gallery, 601 Canyon Road. An artist reception takes place Friday, Oct. 21 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Brodsky, an award-winning book designer and production manager at New Mexico Magazine, focuses her personal artistic vision on handmade books, linoleum block prints and an ongoing body of three-dimensional work involving miniature circus figures, from which the pieces in this show are taken.

Suspended Animation features acrobatic aerialists on trapezes, suspended and precision-balanced amid delicately designed circus sets within tin and glass nichos. The polymer clay figures hang from wood and wire trapezes against backgrounds printed on Japanese paper. Some of the nichos are hand-made by Santa Fe tinsmith Fred Ray Lopez, based on designs by Ms. Brodsky.

Brodsky’s background in theater, costume, fashion and design has culminated in these intimate theater pieces with their elegantly dressed and carefully balanced figures poised in mid-air, using all their agility, trust, daring and grace to stay aloft.

The acrobats belong to a growing body of work called Cirkus Brodsky, a miniature circus housed in an antique glass-faced cabinet. Elements of the Cirkus have been exhibited in group shows, including a recent exhibition by the Santa Fe Book Arts Group at the state capitol Rotunda Gallery. This is the first time a significant portion of Brodsky’s work will be presented in one show.

WHO: Bette Brodsky
WHAT: Suspended Animation, miniature theatre/circus sets and suspended acrobats
WHEN: Oct. 20 - 22; reception Friday, Oct. 21, 4 to 6 p.m.
WHERE: Ernesto Mayans Gallery, 601 Canyon Rd.
INFO: (505) 983-8068, www.artnet.com/mayans.html

For more information, contact Ernesto Mayans, (505) 983-8068, arte2@aol.com or Bette Brodsky (505-827-6917)