FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Manuel Neri:

Sculpture and Works on Paper

 

March 22 – April 19, 2003

 

 

Known for his expressive interpretation of the female body in both sculpture and painting, MANUEL NERI continues to meld time-honored forms and media with a contemporary interpretation.  He has been exploring the nude in diverse media such as marble, bronze, plaster, graphite and oil-stick for nearly fifty years.  In his sculpture as well as his graphic works, the balance NERI maintains between change and permanence, verisimilitude and raw materiality gives his work its striking vitality.

 

In his current exhibition NERI's cast bronze female nudes assume an uncanny naturalistic presence though much of the surface is pitted and scarred with weathered ruggedness.  The allusion to the passage of time reinforces antiquity’s monumentality and graceful proportions as an influence on his completed works. A departure from his colorfully painted bronzes, NERI recreates the elegance of the monochromatic plasters with white patinas on the full-figure bronzes.  In contrast to the dramatic poses of the white bronzes, he will also be showing restrained black torsos with painted blue accents. Where the sculptures are restrained in color, the works on paper come through with NERI's vibrant palette.

While the patinated and painted bronzes are created in his studio in Northern California, NERI spends roughly half of the year in Carrara, Italy, where he carves his marble sculptures, including the large torso in the current exhibition.

 

MANUEL NERI has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States, where he has been the subject of numerous retrospectives.  His work is included in prominent public collections including, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the San Diego Museum of Art.

 

The exhibition will be on view at the Charles Cowles Gallery, 537 West 24^th Street, between 10^th and 11^th Avenues in Chelsea.  Hours are 10am to 6pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

 

There will be a reception on Friday, March 21, from 6-8 pm.

 

For further information or photographs, please contact the gallery.