Figure Out: Catastrophe or Regeneration

Opening Reception September 10, 5 to 7 p.m.

Italian sculptor Paolo Porelli’s latest installation is a wildly imaginative human menagerie of often bizarre, almost mythological figures. Playing with the Manichean idea that the universe is composed of both constructive and destructive forces, the figures are intended to suggest points on the scale between these poles, and thereby hint at the complex and precarious environmental predicament we find ourselves in today. Viewed through a different lens, his slip-cast creations can be read art-historically as post-modern mutations or re-imaginings of the Italian sculpture of antiquity. Porelli’s partner in both life and creativity is the art historian and archeologist Lori-Ann Touchette, who brings a deep knowledge of classical Greek and Roman art to the work that is clearly present. At another level still, they also can be seen as referencing the “figures” of pop-cultural playthings, the dolls and soldiers and science fiction heroes that so often exemplify a Manichean world view of good versus evil. Yet here the heroes and villains are not nearly so clear cut, and perhaps it is this suggestion of a playful imagination triumphing over mundane stereotypes that is the true creative energy behind these works.