Paper Chase

Marlene Krumm-Sanders studied at the American College in Paris, France before receiving her BFA at Parsons in NY.   She exhibits extensively including: George Billis Gallery in CA, L’Attitude Gallery in MA, Riverside Gallery, NJ, The Smithy-Pioneer Gallery, NY, the Chicago S.O.F.A., and the Contemporary Clay Biennial, The National Contemporary Clay Competition

Artist Statement:

My work is a continual exploration of biomorphic abstractions derived from nature that play with the tensions between solid and negative spaces. The work invites the negative space to stand up and be noticed.

I’m fascinated with creating an illusion of air inflating and pushing outward from within the sculpture. These sculptures vacillate between being ‘puffed up with air’, or conversely surrendering their outer shape, so the form appears to deflate or even bend under its own weight.

The sense of air pressure building inside and stretching against the walls creates a perception that the piece is a living breathing entity.

“As a ceramicist, it gives me great pleasure to transform this elastic, malleable material, that is so extremely heavy and dense, into imaginative objects of weightless beauty.”

Built up and cut away, a solid slab of clay becomes an arrangement of repetitive carved spaces that resemble lace, a complex exoskeleton, or scaffolding of the original form. The act of removing clay in my hand building is just as integral to the building up of the complex constructions to achieve their final composition. Light filters onto carved edges and defines shadows and lines. Subtle shifts and changes in appearance occur naturally on the sculpture, depending on how light infuses itself within the piece.

Stains, slips and glazes are applied to the surfaces at a variety of different stages. Surface textures and color enhance the curves and folds, treating the eye to a painterly palette of soft and weathered hues layered over one another.