CROSS-REFERENCES
MAY BRITTON &
MANUELA MOURÂO
Feeling that she has come full circle, sculptor and eco-artist, May Britton reveals that the work for this exhibition is a compilation of concepts and processes that she has undertaken over the last 19 years. Britton began her artistic journey with semi-realistic figurative work before moving on to abstracted figuration and finally arriving at, according to Britton, “art referencing ecological concerns, formal aesthetics expressed through the use of natural materials.”

In this exhibition, Britton focuses mainly on the classically inspired female figure, incorporating contemporary sensibilities and interpreting it in ways, “…that connect my sense of self to the earth,” she says. Britton also displays examples of her transient, site specific work, and eco-inspired sculpture.

Drawing much of her inspiration from her current interest in earth, sediment and erosion, Manuela Mourão seeks to capture in her paintings the corrosive beauty of time and the elements. Her paintings, multi-layered and abstracted, inform the viewer, according to Mourão, “…of the evocation of the aesthetic in dereliction, both in natural landscapes (manifested as sediment and erosion) and in industrial and urban decay.”

Exploring the use of abstraction to reference both landscape and decrepitude, Mourão uses a process of painting and “unpainting” which she describes as scraping, rubbing off and painting over with the added dimension of plaster or dirt. The resultant surfaces are sumptuous in color and rich in texture.