Sculptor Rachel Lauren Kaster presents Ambitious Implements, a series of works examining creation, gender, memory, and fantasy. Charm bracelets, books and tools collide in this exhibition of glass art, with each sculpture subtly playing upon the viewer's assumptions. The artist questions if some objects are inherently masculine and if creation is inherently feminine. The poetic language in the sculpture, underlined with cold and latent violence, creates a beauty that plays with extreme opposites: rusty steel or raw wood are juxtaposed to the glass objects; fragility vs. primal forces; feminine vs. masculine, creation vs. destruction.

 

 

In her mixed media installation Cherish, Laura Larson questions what it means  to cherish. Specifically, how do we care for each other and the world in which we live? How do changing times affect these relationships? These questions are explored within the context of myth, magic and mystery. 

The three dimensional objects and two dimensional pieces in the installation represent what sustains and enhances our daily life (caring relationships, food/eating, sleeping/dreaming, fabric/clothing, imagination/story telling), but use allusion, metaphor and scale to emphasize current values. As museums are ritual places where societies make visible what they value, this installation is presented in the manner of a museum gallery containing treasures that speak to the art of living.

 

 

Larry Villarin willfully conflates his two vocations: performing autopsies for 28 years and as a surrogate partner in sex therapy for 20 years into a provocative new installation Love + Death. Having thoroughly dissected the inside of the physical self and the inside of the sexual self, Villarin invites viewers to join in the fun by doing a sexual autopsy on themselves, with help from opera music.