Adrian Arleo

Adrian Arleo
Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle
A Review by Matthew Kangas
F
or her fifth solo show in seattle since 1992,
Montana clay artist Adrian Arleo displayed a
new body of work that affirmed her position as
a leading West Coast ceramics sculptor rather than
breaking any new ground. The 52 year old artist studied at Pitzer College, Rhode Island School of Design
and the American University in Rome among other
places. Her undergraduate background in anthropology and archaeology also led to excavation fieldwork
at the Hoko River site in Washington State.
Along these lines, with their dried, grooved and
Lion – Awareness Series. 2011. Low-fire sculpture clay body, glaze
and gold leaf. 20 x 27 x 12 in.
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Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 88 2012
bleached-out surfaces, Arleo’s new sculptures distantly recall archaeological relics. Less surrealistic than
many West Coast ceramics sculptors of her generation,
Arleo still manages to draw upon the dislocating juxtaposition of unconnected images common to surrealism
occasionally but her firm grasp of animal and human
anatomy makes this recourse less necessary, tempering
the overall power of each piece.
Lion and Owl (Awareness Series, all works are 2011)
have human eyes covering their fur and feathers
à la Magritte, as if to symbolise the rapt scrutiny of
ecological specialists. The gold-leafed base of Lion
(shouldn’t it be Lioness?) places the feline in a sacralised category, further reinforcing her status as effigy
or object rather than living, breathing creature.
Arleo’s in-between scale intensifies the problematic
issue of object versus naturalistic animal size. Too big
to be knickknacks and too small to be accurate facsimiles, averaging 15 to 24 inches high, they recall the
seated lion and cat sculptures of Carl Walters in the
1940s: attractive, diminutive and bland. Assured yet
immobile, each animal is caught within its world of
diminished scale. Winding, curving tails hint at movement but do not dislodge impassive qualities.
Undercurrent – Diving Duck and Swan (Awareness
Series) offer contrasts between the realistic former
and the surrealistic latter. Wall-mounted, the duck in
Undercurrent has yet to dive; it is floating above stylised water currents that act as a shelf. Open red eyes
animate the fowl beyond any taxidermic threat. Swan,
with its wavy, almost flat cakeplate-pedestal support, may allude to 18th and 19th century European
porcelain table presentation pieces. Although swans
are endangered, too (it is a capital crime to kill one in
England because all swans are deemed royal property),
the eyes in the feathers are subdued, even sleepy and
play a smaller role in any overall meaning.
In Reclined Lion with Interior Woman, one gazes
through mane ringlets to see a small, full-length female
nude inside. Far from this morning’s breakfast, the
human figure within anthropomorphises the king of
beasts, adding a delineable dimension of human psychology and setting up an additional tension of gender
– male/female – and species – animal/human – that
enriches the piece mysteriously.
The other half of the exhibition combined animal
and human figures more openly than Reclined Lion with
Above: Swan – Awareness Series. 2011. Low-fire sculpture clay
body, glaze and terra sigillata. 24 x 26 x 13 in.
Below left: Undercurrent – Swan. 2011.
Low-fire sculpture clay body and glaze. 27 x 23 x 12 in.
Below: Owl – Awareness Series. 2011.
Low-fire sculpture clay body, glaze and terra sigillata.
17 x 14 x 6.5 in.
Owl – Awareness Series is in the collection of Seattle University,
Seattle, Washington, US.
Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 88 2012
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Above: Honey Comb Girl, Pasture Metamorphosis. 2011. Low-fire sculpture clay body, glaze and wax encaustic. 18.5 x 22 x 13 in.
Below: Reclined Lion w/ Interior Woman. 2011. Low-fire sculpture clay body, glaze, wax encaustic and gold leaf. 12 x 23 x 11 in.
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Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 88 2012
Interior Woman. Arleo mentioned in an interview how
she has been trying to attain greater individuality for
each human figure; this is a step in the right direction.
After all, if this is narrative sculpture, where is the narrative or ‘plot’ without individual characters? What
critic Ron Glowen referred to as Arleo’s “more expansive universal view of the self” in 1993 also meant a
greater generalisation of features at the time; now,
psychological states such as meditation and contemplation appear more important components of each
sculpture, as does individual identity.
Honeycomb Girl – Pasture Metamorphosis and Canopy
– Variation of Romulus and Remus are the most complex
narratives with the greatest number of plot elements.
The former turns a seated female nude into an abode
for bees (and a metaphor for nutrient-making?) with
two miniature white ponies emerging from between
her legs. At 18–1/2 inches high, this sculpture is too
small for a broader, more dramatic end but perfect for
a statement about fecundity.
Canopy shelters the twin founders of Rome. The variation is that they are now a male-female couple using a
friendly goat to protect themselves. Arleo’s grooved fur
pattern on the replacement for the legend’s she-wolf
makes the goat particularly realistic-looking.
Other artists who have travelled this route (Beverly
Mayeri, Michael Lucero, Anne Perrigo) never achieved
this difficult mixture of realism and symbolism. Arleo’s
ambiguous vision here, as well as in Undercurrent
– Swan, is more reductive and simpler than her
colleagues’.
With the latter and Brambles, a female bust is beneath
the animals. In each case, the weight of the swan on a
platter above a blue figure’s head, or deer nestled in
the hair of a whitened female nude suggest a heightened consciousness about the fragility of nature and
its inhabitants. The focus, however, remains on the
self, thus limiting any broader social narrative potential. Adrian Arleo’s challenge will be to reconcile her
symbolic powers with her narrative yearnings.
Matthew Kangas is the author of Craft and Concept: The Rematerialization of the Art Object (Midmarch Arts Press), a collection of essays
that covers over 300 years of American decorative and fine arts history. Copyright © Matthew Kangas 2012.
All photos by Chris Autio.
Canopy, Variation of Romulus and Remus. 2011.
Low-fire sculpture clay body, glaze, wax encaustic and gold leaf.
25 x 27 x 14 in.
Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 88 2012
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