Solo Series Spring 2017

Maria G. Albornoz’ clay sculpture explores memory through abstract interpretations drawn from her childhood in Caracas, Venezuela. While some memories are transient and others transformed through time, the impressions left behind are distinct. The memories from this city surrounded by mountains are imbued with sensations, textures and smells. Her ordinary, absurd and oddly familiar sculptural objects reflect this reverie, exploring the relationship between line, color, textures, and form.

Climate change, sprawl, and the exploitation of natural resources are modern plagues that define our environment. Marks made by adults affect the places where children play, learn and develop into future architects of the environment. The fragmentation of time and space due to technology structures our digital spaces and affects how we perceive our literal spaces. Young people navigate these inherited spaces with little guidance. This narrative is articulated through the use of modern iconography, flattened spaces, gold line work, and decorative motifs. These methods reference the art of the Byzantine, an era similar to our own in its struggle to define morality and its feud between iconoclasts and iconolaters.

Ron Klein’s mixed media works are a result of years of traveling and collecting things in remote equatorial locations. Rainforest habitats, replete with complex repetitive patterns, offer an abundance of artifacts that both inspire and construct his sculpture. These organic materials are then combined with contemporary urban objects, situating both simultaneously in a world of chaos and order.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website