Transform, Transport, Transpose: Sculpture by Leigh Taylor Mickelson, Judit Varga and Lars Westby
CURATOR'S STATEMENT

Each of the artists included in this exhibit, Leigh Taylor Mickelson, Judit Varga and Lars Westby, begin their work by perceiving and absorbing ordinary objects or shapes. These objects are then transformed, combined and composed into lively and animated sculpture full of both humor and poetry. Using clay as a primary material, each is able to bring an instinctive spontaneity to the highly individualized process of transporting the mundane and pedestrian into a realm that is electrified through fertile and active imagination.

Making sculpture in any medium is always a labor-intensive process requiring planning and forethought. By choosing to work in clay, an essentially malleable material, Varga, Mickelson and Westby have each been able to invent an artistic methodology that allows for more flexibility during the construction phase than is usually possible when creating inanimate objects. In addition, since ceramic work is always and necessarily influenced and constrained by the size of the kiln, all have developed a way of working that involves building a larger whole out of multiple smaller components. Sometimes these components are juxtaposed, presented in tandem or in conversation with each other, as in Mickelson’s Duet series. Often they are stacked in totem-like configurations, as in Westby’s Calea and Varga’s Mt. Aracat. This technique of assembling pieces after the firing allows for yet a second wave of variation, as ideas undergo a process of permutation based on the trial and error of different combinations of forms.

Another characteristic of these works, which can be seen as a consequence of both the use of clay as a material and the innate aesthetic sensibilities of these artists, is the prevalence of organic forms. Clay is perfectly suited for building shapes with rounded edges. The straight lines of the geometric are harder and more clumsily achieved. This works well for Varga, Mickelson and Westby, as they all share an interest, to varying degrees, in creating sculptures that refer to nature, sexuality, and reproduction, concepts that naturally lend themselves to organic interpretation. Mickelson’s stacked forms, for instance, have direct antecedents in the pistols, stamen and seedpods that are part of botanical reproduction processes. Varga’s smaller and more delicate pieces possess the deeply multi-layered textures so often found on the forest floor. Wesby’s works, while deriving their original spark from man-made objects such as toy tops, tools and floating buoys, are busting with a fullness and fertility that alludes to both human and plant sexuality.

Material, technique, ideas and intent blend seamlessly here into works that feel alive and familiar, yet newly grown and surprising as well. In what seems like one large vigorous breath, these sculptures manage to transform the ordinary. They transport both artist and viewer from the mundane world to one freshly conceived through imagination, transposing the expected into something gloriously vital.

Nancy Sausser, Curator
Exhibitions Director, McLean Project for the Arts