Scraps With Nature – Mary Admasian
T. W. Wood Gallery • Montpelier, VT • twwoodgallery.org • Through July 22, 2024
Mary Admasian’s body of multimedia work is on the move to new heights. Known for creating in the spirit of environmental and social/political activism with intentions that run deep, these sculptures allow the viewer to come to their own understanding. Admasian shares, “I call myself a seed planter. I use materials as a metaphor for other things.” Scraps With Nature at the T. W. Wood Gallery reveals true architectural mastery in sculptural assemblage. At first glance, structural lines and a limited color palette (primarily natural wood, blue, black and white) reveal texture that allows the voices in the reclaimed scraps of wood to sing. While small in scale, the thirty-one pieces are at once elegant in surface and line and command attention. The exhibition merges celebrated series of her work as well as fourteen new constructions. As for her palette, Admasian is known for using the same blue in her work that marks trees for felling. However, the blue in her constructions signifies a rebirth of the wood in a new form.
Upon closer viewing, stones, pearls, and natural crystals have a relationship with the wood. A favorite title in the exhibition is Pearl on Deck—its shapes reminiscent of a boat bottom with a pearl added to draw energy to the sculpture, revealing the artist’s playful side.
Barbed wire makes an appearance to represent tension or division in works like Bound by History and The Red Divide. “I am influenced by the exploration of balance and barriers between objects—positions and connections—as well as implicit boundaries of familial, political and social covenants and connections.” Admasian’s black and white multimedia pieces have a unique energy created with needles and black ink on a surface that emits energy and transcendence. Her repurposed piece from Vermont’s Highland Center for the Arts on the solar eclipse employs gossamer paper—a layered eclipse evolution—searching for totality. A perfect homage to her home state of Vermont which celebrated this celestial experience in the line of totality.
— Kelly Holt