Ethereal Sculptures by Karen LaMonte Link Perceptions of Beauty, Femininity, and Nature

In porcelain, bronze, glass, and stone, Karen LaMonte’s sculptures explore ideas around femininity and conventions of beauty throughout history. She nods to time-honored sculptural traditions with silhouettes redolent of, for example, the three marble goddesses of the Parthenon pediment that have shaped classical sculpture and exemplified ideals of beauty for millennia.

LaMonte conceives of lounging or posing figures in her Nocturnes and Etudes series with gowns or robes that appear spectrally inhabited. “Like spoken or written language, beauty is shaped by common idioms and shared experiences that are the foundations of culture,” LaMonte says. “In this way, it is more than just a description; it is a reflection of a greater whole, a visual representation of what is valued in society.”

a cast glass sculpture of exaggerated drapery around a female figure, with no body present — “Etude 13” (2017), cast glass, 65.5 x 48.5 x 19 centimeters

Munson Museum of Art just opened a survey of nearly 60 pieces titled Celestial Bodies: Sculpture by Karen LaMonte, exploring the artist’s use of various media. The artist juxtaposes a range of resilient, heavy-duty materials with exaggeratedly draped fabrics associated with softness and vulnerability, interrogating the intrinsic dualities between strength and fragility, visibility and absence, and solidity and transparency.

Celestial Bodies also includes a multimedia series of scientifically accurate depictions of cumulus clouds that billow ethereally from their bases. “Clouds intrigue me because they make visible the invisible forces of the natural world,” LaMonte says.

The more the artist explored the ripples and folds of fabric and drapery in her dress sculptures, the more she began to interpret the body as a landscape shaped and defined by the elements. LaMonte began to explore the notion of weather, and her series Weathering emerged, imbuing cloud forms with an elegant bodily quality.

Celestial Bodies continues through December 31 in Utica, New York. Find more on LaMonte’s website and Instagram.

a series of four cumulus cloud sculptures in different materials and colors — Group of “Cumulus (1:8)” (2020–2023), various mediums and sizes

a six-panel wall installation of white drapery folds — “Vortex” 2009, vitreous china, 91 x 330 x 10 centimeters

the back of a bronze sculpture of a Japanese robe or gown with a large bow in the back — “Hanako” (2012), bronze, 122.5 x 50 x 44 centimeters

a cast glass sculpture of exaggerated drapery on a gown on a lounging figure, with no body present — “Reclining Lucent 3” (2022), cast glass, 51.5 x 153 x 65.5 centimeters

a cast glass sculpture of a cumulus cloud — “Cumulus (1:8)”

marble sculptures of cumulus clouds — Group of “Cumulus (1:8)”

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