Inside/Outside: Ceramic artist Adrian Arleo Explores the Mysterious

Janus - 19"x17"x15"

Adrian Arleo is an extraordinarily imaginative ceramic artist and her pieces communicate a sophisticated exploration of the interaction between what is seen and known about the connection between humans and animals—and what is mysterious, unseen, and, perhaps, only intuitable.

Arleo’s latest exhibition, featuring all new works, opens Friday, July 23rd, with an artist’s reception from 5–7pm, and runs through August 16th at the Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. The artist hails from Lolo, MT, and her studio, as does her work, reflects her fascination with nature’s many forms. In other words, nature doesn’t stay outside while she creates inside. Her window sills, and every surface within her studio, hold a wild collection of beehives, honeycombs, birds’ nests, rocks, twigs, shells, and other bits and pieces she’s come upon outdoors and brought here to consider further, to inspire. The studio’s windows, doors, and the artist herself are open to life and its continually evolving, ever-changing spiritual intersections.

Fascinated by “the glimpses we get into what is normally unseeable and mysterious,” Arleo’s newest works hold both interior and exterior surprises. For example, JANUS, created in January 2010, arose from the mythological Roman God of beginnings, a single figure gazing simultaneously backwards and forwards through time. For the artist, each new year brings fresh possibilities and the baby hidden within this piece “represents this vulnerable, blank slate feeling.”

Standing Lion with Internal Woman - 23"x32"x12"

A constant theme for Arleo is metamorphosis, an exploration of the intersection between man and nature, the shape-shifting thread of relationship that runs constantly between the two. In STANDING LION WITH INTERNAL WOMAN, she uses delicate carving, an open fretwork, to allow us glimpses of a mysterious interior. In all of her pieces, the artist provides an intriguing frame for the viewer’s individual interpretation. As Arleo puts it, her lion figures are “a continuation of the running narrative in all my work, that everything is connected, that there is no 'Other,' that we are made of the same substances and are all dependent upon the same elemental forces.”

Adrian Arleo’s sculpture is exhibited internationally, and is in numerous public and private collections. Her pieces are richly evocative and narrative. Each creation is a complex combination of clay, glazes, and wax encaustic, some including gold leaf, and involves an exceptional degree of craftsmanship. Her work is incomparable and I guarantee that a visit to this exhibition will be rewarding—something you will not soon forget!

Matrimony - 19"x25.5"x14"

Please visit the website at http://www.jsauergallery.com to see more preview images.

-- Rosemary Carstens
http://www.CarstensCommunications.com