Fauna: Adelaide Paul and Linda Cordell, displays the work of two former Clay Studio resident artists: Cordell’s meticulously sculpted, lifelike porcelain figures depict animals juxtaposed with everyday domestic objects, raising questions about our need to control or deny nature’s ugly realities. Cordell, a 2003 Pew Fellow in the Arts, focuses on animals’ more base tendencies: hunger, aggression and reproduction. Rooted in an aesthetic reminiscent of the grand European porcelain manufacturers reflecting a lifelike realism and classical style, her meticulously sculpted porcelain figures depict animals juxtaposed with everyday domestic objects, with afflictions or in compromised situations.
Meanwhile, Paul, passionate about animal welfare, presents work that addresses wild vs. domestic animals with a gentle approach. Her figures, in combination with mixed media and found objects, comment on man’s inhumanity, gender issues, breeding, gluttony and more, challenging viewers to be better, more considerate humans. Paul spent nine years working with horses and later took a veterinary anatomy class with a desire to better understand what lies beneath the skin of the animals she was sculpting. She now works as a teacher’s assistant in the gross anatomy lab at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, in addition to teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
In conjunction with their own exhibition, Cordell and Paul also have invited five artists to display their work in the group show Animal Instincts (on view Sept. 6-Oct. 27). These artists include Tim Berg and Rebekah Meyer, Christina Bothwell, Rhonda Chan, Lindsay Pichaske and Susan Schultz.
Please email naomi@theclaystudio with inquiries
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