Continuing through July 13, 2013
"Encuentro" by Susana Espinosa and Toni Hambleton embodies the physical and spiritual dialogue among sculptures by two Puerto Rican female ceramic artists, both long-time friends, now in their eighties. Architecturally inspired structures by Mexican-born Hambleton meet the wide-eyed, personable figurative works of Argentinean native Espinosa. Deep symbolism within these works, often alluding to the larger spiritual world, becomes apparent through the figures and designs embedded and sculpted into each piece. Hambleton’s sculptures, including her “Hidden Legends” series, each with an added crescent moon at the top, are clean and Zen-like. Rectangular-shaped works bearing designs and scratches refer to pre-Columbian and ancient Mexican motifs, and take on a meditative quality.
Espinosa’s “L'ecole Francaise” (French school) consists of four sculpted female figures, a large headmistress, a smaller female, probably a teacher, and two students, one a teenager, the other a child, all garbed in 18th century dresses. The headmistress stands protectively in the middle of the group, looking off to one side, while the other three figures have erect and noble stances. Scratched and embedded into each dress are small birds, animals, undersea creatures and plant life, suggesting the studies in which children of an earlier era engaged. Espinosa’s “Pensando en Ayer,” an androgynous bust, has a bright-eyed face atop a free-form body that is covered with drawings, scratches, and small punctures. Several of these drawings are abstract, with a few evocative of cave drawings. Hambleton’s and Espinosa’s deftly created ceramic sculptures are pioneered by women working in a region where ceramics are still very much associated with tourist-made planters. Perhaps this cultural climate spurs these women to create artworks that are free-spirited, joyful and mystical.
Published courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2013
