Artist Maria Battista is shedding old skin and airing an entirely new body of classical bronze sculptural work, keumboo jewelry and emotionally intimate figurative drawings in her upcoming one-woman exhibit Renaissance: Sculpture as Poetic Pilgrimage. Battista has been studying with international masters and diving deeply into her own extensive literary, spiritual and artistic background. Her show will invite conversation about the nature of life and art as poetic processes which are best apprehended with a pilgrim's mind that learns to "read" the elements of the grand poem.

Battista brings to life anatomically-honed figures in oil-based clay which are then cast in hard materials such as bronze or plaster. Keumboo is a recent addition to her gold smithing expertise, a technique which entails the atomic diffusion of 24k gold onto pure silver to create engaging surface textures and patinas. Her lyrical drawings show a devotion to both academic and contemporary materials and approaches to the figure.

This exhibit pursues a pathway between themes of androgyny as the evolution of beauty, of universal vulnerability, loss and return, emptiness and poetic reconfiguration. It displays the body with respect and sensitivity to our shared, fragile, and inspiring human predicament.

Commonwheel Artists Co-op
Opening Reception Friday, September 19, 5 - 8 pm
Show runs September 19 - October 14, 2014