Redding Sculptor Participates in Exhibition

Janice Mauro of Redding will take part in this exhibition:

Ways of Seeing 5 Contemporary Sculptors

Ways of Seeing is an exhibition of five sculptors whose work explores a vast range of sculptural possibilities, each with a very different focus. Their explorations include elegant figurative and abstract free-standing sculptures in gypsum and fired ceramics; smaller scale sculptures with rich ash patinas generated in Anagama wood firing kilns; and three-dimensional sculptured paintings of electric-fired ceramic clay or carved Styrofoam.

Allan Drossman, curator and participant in this exhibition, grew up in New York where he enhanced his enduring love of art and music by going to museums and listening to jazz. After art school, he worked in commercial art for forty years, spending most of this time as a graphic designer and art director in television. Artistically and intellectually stimulating, the work allowed him to employ his skills in painting, drawing, collage, photography and typography. Ultimately, he was solving graphic problems for others but not for himself. Twelve years ago, he discovered clay and finally found his soul. Allan’s work reflects his concern for our natural environment, its beauty and its immanent destruction as well as its capacity for rebirth. To that end, he uses wood and gas firing techniques that remind of us of the primal heat of creation and the planet’s evolving landscape. He hopes that his work speaks to others.

Elaine Lorenz is intrigued by shape and form, mass and volume. The backbone of the earth – bedrock and the erosion into cliffs and canyons caused by water has been a major influence for her work. Her sculpture is tangible and touchable, but it can also contain an emotional experience. She captures a sense of connection with the earth, renewal of life and a feeling of joyfulness. Her work hovers between the abstract and the representational. At other times she is interested in more intimate observations on nature, such as trees growing out of crevices in rocks, mushroom pushing through asphalt paths and plants growing up through cinders of a volcano. The work in this exhibition shows both aspects and is crafted in clay, both stoneware and raku fired. Elaine Lorenz is an Assistant Professor in the Art Department at William Paterson University. www.ElaineLorenz.com

Janice Mauro has always been drawn to artifacts because they are multifaceted. They are art object, historical, and at one time may have used in ways that suggest ceremony or something important. The relic quality of her work suggests these things; however the material and marks may imply a found object from the future, a twist on time. Her award winning sculpture has been widely exhibited and well reviewed. She has also designed, carved and modeled puppets for New York Broadway productions such as Julie Taymor’s The Lion King and Eve Le Gallienne’s Alice in Wonderland. Janice Mauro teaches figurative sculpture at The Art School at Old Church in Demarest, New Jersey as well as at Silvermine School of Art in Connecticut. www.goodwoodstudio.com & www.theglobolutionproject.com

Judy Schaefer is an Abstract Expressionist artist exploring the ambiguous relationship between illusion and reality by extending beyond the picture plane into literal or implied three-dimensionality. Thrusts of line and color create a sense of energy, atmosphere and spatial organization. Forms and spaces that are complete become part of other configurations, shifting from one definition to another as their contexts change. The viewer sees perspective implications that promise one spatial definition, which are then momentarily abandoned for new configurations. Her references, often biomorphic, are drawn from the real world and the subconscious to create visual metaphors on paper, carved Styrofoam and fired ceramic clay. She confirms the contemporary suspicion that things are not necessarily what they seem by generating a renewed appreciation of choice and possibility. Judy Schaefer teaches at The Art School at Old Church in Demarest, New Jersey. www.judyschaefer.net

David Soo has abandoned many of the goals of conventional throwing techniques, seeking results that appear created but not contrived. Central to his compositional language is the incorporation of contrasting textures, three-dimensional line and negative space. He is sensitive to how a sculpture touches the surface it rests on and how it touches the air around it: squat and heavy, standing on one toe, pointing toward the sky, or curled up in a ball. Each gesture is part of a language of motion versus tension, of position or posture. To better understand this, he tries to examine how clay behaves when thrown and manipulated. How does it stretch, sag or tear? How might you work with a thickly thrown pot as opposed to one that is thin or light? An intuitive conversation emerges as he develops its form, attending to what each piece says it needs in order to become complete. Always fully respectful of the clay, he use the ancient process of anagama wood firing, which applies an Abstract Expressionist finish by the mysterious painting of flame, heat, and molten moving atmosphere. With anagama, the contours of the sculpture affect how and where the wood ash accumulates and melts, creating a surface that corresponds to and accentuates the unique design of each sculpture. www.davidsoo.net

For show information call Elaine Lorenz 201-232-8043 or Janice Mauro 203-731-1130