Maryellen Latas: Lead & Gold

The history of art, of culture, is rich and varied. I cut my teeth, so to speak, on Modernism but I embrace Minimalism. Simultaneously, I rejected the purely industrial and allowed the inclusion of materials both industrial (lead sheeting, birch ply) and materials traditionally associated with decorative and architectural embellishment (gold, silver and copper leafs). The Minimalist tenets of an emphasis on geometric forms, repetition and seriality reassert themselves whereas the "hands off" approach is also rejected and the materials are unabashedly beautiful, sensual and both historically and metaphorically "loaded". --Maryellen Latas