Cary Esser Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art
SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART 2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 816.221.2626 sherryleedy.com Catalog design Allison King Photo credit E.G. Schempf Cover image Lacuna L17
Cary Esser Minerality November 5, 2021 - January 22, 2022
Cary Esser: Minerality Artist Statement
An ongoing connection between organic and geometric structures in my work has played a role in the creation and evolution of each new series. My early sensibilities as an artist were influenced by our built environments, and in particular by tiles and ornament with motifs of flora and fauna. My reflections on architectural form and surface have been a touchstone, strongly influencing my thinking about the exterior and the interior as having shared meaning. These over-arching ideas are perhaps most fully expressed in my current sculptures, wall-reliefs entitled “Lacuna”. The works are cast with liquid clay in plaster molds, configured to deliberately encourage what at first might be regarded as technical flaws. The random markings and fissures left by the forming process are meant to contrast with the intentionally placed grids and frames. My aim is to render a clear tension between order and entropy. With each piece, the application of monochrome colors, along with various textures, emulate diverse industrial and natural substances, such as metal, salt, coral, or oil, confounding the sense of their materiality. The sculptures provoke in me a need to consider the mystery of their interior, that shallow, folded, compressed space held between two planes or skins. I want the sculptures to allude to an internal state that is like a shield - the human need and impulse to protect, both physically and emotionally. Yet, that shield inevitably yields, frays, and discloses what is beneath and within. My deeper thematic interest is in the end of architecture, the end of the body, its inevitable succumbing to gravity, to decomposition, its return to the earth, and with that, the prospect of growth and renewal. -Cary Esser, 2021
Installation image
Installation image
Lacuna L3, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.75” x 1.5”
Lacuna W1, earthenware, glaze, 7.5” x 5.5” x 1.75”
Lacuna B1, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 8” x 6.5” x 2.25”
Lacuna B2, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 7.75” x 5.75” x 1.75”
Lacuna B3, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 8” x 6” x 1.75”
Lacuna B5, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 7.75” x 6” x 1.75”
Lacuna B6, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 8” x 6” x 2”
Lacuna B7, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 8” x 5.75” x 2”
Lacuna O1, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 8” x 5.75” x 1.75”
Lacuna W2, earthenware, glaze, underglaze, 8” x 5.75” x 1.75”
Lacuna L9, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.75” x 1.75”
Lacuna L10, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 6” x 1.75”
Lacuna L11, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 8” x 6” x 1.75”
Lacuna L12, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 8” x 5.75” x 1.75”
Lacuna L17, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 8” x 6” x 1.25”
Lacuna L18, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 8.25” x 6” x 1.75”
Lacuna L4, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.5” x 6” x 2”
Lacuna L5, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.5” x 5.5” x 1.75”
Lacuna L13, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.5” x 5.75” x 2.25”
Lacuna L14, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.25” x 1.75”
Lacuna L15, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.5” x 2”
Lacuna L16, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 6” x 2”
Lacuna L19, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.75” x 2”
Lacuna M1, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.75” x 2”
Lacuna L2, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.75” x 1.5”
Lacuna L6, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 8” x 5.75” x 1.75”
Lacuna L1, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 8” x 6” x 1.25”
Lacuna L8, earthenware, glaze, gilding, 7.75” x 5.75” x 2”
Installation image
Installation image
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art 2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 816.221.2626 sherryleedy.com