Beth Cavener, Hoof Cups, 2017, Carved porcelain, china paints and glaze. 4.9 x 5.25 inches. Value $2,500 each. Gift of the artist. Courtesy Jason Jacques, New York.
Cfile’s Gala Global Auction opens July 3 (mark your calendars) for bidding with works from sixty artists from all over the world (including the bottom of the Indian Ocean). You will get an email on that date giving you a link to Bidsquare where the auction takes places. Here is a pair of gems. These seditious cups, the color of dried blood, behaved poorly in the kiln for some reason and these are the only two of eight that survived the Devil’s fire. It’s the last time you will see these available:
Beth Cavener, b.1972, Pasadena, California, one of the most admired sculptors in the medium, explores human psychology in intensely expressive clay sculptures of animals. By using animals as her vehicles, Cavener attempts to lay bare the darker aspects of humanity, from carnality and self-loathing to insecurity and apathy. “Both human and animal interactions show patterns of intricate, subliminal gestures that betray intent and motivation,” she says. “I rely on animal body language in my work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits.” Cavener achieves the highly expressive quality of her sculptures through an intensely laborious process. She extracts her figures from solid blocks of clay, every gestural passage the result of her own physical labor, and then slices them into small sections, hollowing and reworking each in order to heighten its sense of life and internal energy. These seditious, somewhat bloody cups behaved poorly in the kiln for some reason and these are the only two of eight survived the Devil’s fire.
To learn more about Beth Cavener, please visit Cfile.
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