Adrian Arleo – Beyond the Figurative: Ceramic Sculptures    Jul 11 - Aug 5, 2008

The artist will be in attendance.

For nearly two decades figurative artist Adrian Arleo has created haunting ceramic sculptures combining human and animal imagery suggesting mythologies of transformation. Some of her work alludes to deep relationships between the human and animal worlds; other pieces reveal something hidden about the main subject, such as the person’s character or soul. In this exhibition, the artist explores these concepts in different ways.

“Tree of Life I” startles the viewer at first: it is a 4-foot high sculpture of a woman’s body with tree branches emerging from her human limbs. But the viewer is drawn closer by the enigmatic expression on the woman’s face, by the strength and profundity of her presence. The face is pensive, ageless, and timeless—she is Mother Earth, the beginning and continuation of all creation. Her eyes look out, but not at us; they seem to have an expectant look, as if she were wondering what the future holds for her.

“Rings—Seated Honeycomb Woman” looks directly at her viewers with a gaze that asks us to do more than look back at her. She seems to be imploring us to reach out to her, to care for her and, by doing so, to care for ourselves. It is a gaze of mutual longing and dependency. Her honeycomb surface is solid yet full of entrances; she both offers and requires sustenance. Natural honeycomb grows through natural processes and deteriorates the same way. Her wise and somewhat melancholy gaze tells us that all is in flux, that nothing can be taken for granted. Though her precise message will vary from viewer to viewer, like another sculpture, “Skep—Crouching Honeycomb Woman,” she makes us think about our inner life, our relationships past and present, and our longings.

Arleo’s Honeycomb sculptures invite viewers to experience them with all of the senses. They ask to be studied closely, to be touched, even to be smelled. The wax encaustic surfaces have the appearance of actual honeycomb, its warm color and pocked texture, and the smell of the wax suggests that bees have just completed their marvelous protective work on the figures. Honeycomb has many associations: nourishment, sweetness, continual growth and decay, protection, and the danger of the bee’s sting. These figures are deeply expressive, through their faces, their hands, and their rich surfaces. They are metaphors for the ways in which humans inhabit the natural world and the ways in which the natural world continues to make us who we are, and who we will become.

Artists have been exploring the relationship between the human and animal realms since the beginnings of art history, and Arleo is aware of these connections. In ancient Egyptian art, a figure of a bird with a human face and hands, known as Ba, represents the eternal soul. A decade ago, Arleo saw one of these tiny sculptures in a museum show, and felt instinctively that it represented the complex feelings that she had been working with for years. She has included these Ba figures in some of her sculptures to convey different aspects of her primary human subjects: tenderness, vulnerability, even whimsy.

Bio:

Adrian Arleo lives in Montana. She received her MFA in ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1986. Most recently, her work was featured in The Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists, published by Lark Books, 2005, and in the journal Ceramics: Art and Perception, #62, 2005. Her sculpture is exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in numerous public and private collections.

Selected Museum and Public Collections:

Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
The World Ceramic Exposition Foundation, Icheon, Korea
Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT
Microsoft, Seattle, WA
Ruth Kohler, Kohler, WI
Candace Groot, Chicago, IL
Greenwich House, Potter, NY
Archie Foundation, Helena, MT
Gloria and Sonny Kamm, Los Angeles, CA