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People Bond with Animals and Nature in Adrian Arleo’s Poetic Ceramic Sculptures — Colossal

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Artwork

#Adrian Arleo
#animals
#ceramics
#clay
#porcelain
#sculpture

August 22, 2023

Kate Mothes

A bust of a woman with long, flowing hair.

“Inner” (2021), clay, glaze, wax encaustic, gold luster, and blended media, 13 x 20 x 12.5 inches. All photos © Adrian Arleo, shared with permission

Honeycomb faces, a hound with palms for fur, and the all-seeing eyes of a badger are just some of the hybrid figures in Adrian Arleo’s placing sculptures. For 4 a long time, the Missoula-based artist has explored poetic imagery that creates robust emotional bonds. “Usually, there’s a suggestion of an important interconnection between the human and non-human realms; the imagery arises from associations, issues, and obsessions which can be directly intimate and common,” she says in a press release.

Working primarily in clay and porcelain, generally with the addition of encaustic, gold luster, and different supplies, Arleo’s items reveal an curiosity in mythology and archetypes. She focuses on themes of change and transformation, each private and in our environmental, social, and political realities. Every work harbors a narrative, like “Inner,” which references “the vastness of our inner area and expertise.” She says:

The small determine that’s cradled within the lady’s hair has a floor coloration that references the night time sky: a deep blue-black with gold flecks, just like the cosmos. That references the attractive frescoed chapel ceilings I’ve ceaselessly seen in Italy, the blue with gold stars. The piece was made in the course of the pandemic, and the isolation of that interval created a sort of turning inward, since outward was so restricted.

 

A detail of a ceramic figure.

Element of “Inner”

Concepts for Arleo’s items usually come up from on a regular basis observations. For instance, sooner or later she was watching her chickens and observed the feel of their feathers, prompting her to think about quite a few palms overlapped in a caressing formation and to create a sequence experimenting with the motif. The symbolism of palms because the supply of safety, communication, and creation present a deep effectively of attainable interpretations. In “Canine With Fingers,” the creature would possibly recommend the therapeutic manner that canines can calm us or point out how effectively they’re cared for and cherished.

“A lot of my work arises from a sort curiosity,” Arleo says. “I’ll observe one thing, both in nature, in a relationship, in an expertise, and pictures begin to type, and I really feel compelled to see it take form. That curiosity has stayed with me for many of my life and is de facto the essence of why I make work.”

Radius Gallery in Missoula will host a solo exhibition of Arleo’s work subsequent summer time, and she or he usually teaches workshops. You possibly can observe Instagram for updates, and discover extra work on her web site.

 

A ceramic sculpture of a dog with fur of overlapping hands.

“Canine With Fingers” (2007), clay and glaze, 20 x 34 x 14 inches

A detail of a ceramic sculpture of a dog with fur of overlapping hands.

Element of “Canine With Fingers”

Three ceramic cups with flowers and faces.

“Three Flora Cups” (2020), solid, altered, and sculpted porcelain, and glaze, every roughly 4 inches tall

A ceramic sculpture of a dog with flower vases on its back.

“Canine Tulipiere” (2021), porcelain and glaze, 8.5 x 10 x 5 inches

A ceramic sculpture of a sleeping figure whose face is made of honeycomb.

“Echo” (2020), clay, glaze, and wax encaustic, 15 x 13 x 6 inches

A ceramic sculpture of a badger with fur made of eyes.

“Persistence Badger” (2020), from ‘Consciousness’ sequence, clay, glaze, and gold leaf, 9.5 x 22 x 11 inches

A detail of a ceramic sculpture of a badger with fur made of eyes.

Element of “Persistence Badger”

A ceramic sculpture of a curled-up figure covered in overlapping hands.

“Embodiment II” (2005), clay and glaze, 6 x 11.5 x 11 inches

#Adrian Arleo
#animals
#ceramics
#clay
#porcelain
#sculpture

 

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