The sensuous surface quality of materials is essential to the sculptor Marion Held.  Held pairs mediums in unique combinations to intensify their individuality.  An example of this is Three Figures, composed of clay faces and torsos hung within a large wooden frame.  The metallic surface of high fired clay contrasts with the aged and weathered appearance of wood, bringing to mind an ancient structure or ritual.  Three Figures is intended to evoke an emotional response in the viewer based on associations which engage the mind when one encounters the work.

Held's current explorations add cast rubber to her vocabulary of materials.  The natural color of the rubber and its translucent quality provide an unusual counterpoint to the opaque characteristics of other mediums.  Held works to make a sense of beauty, poetry, and sometimes whimsy integral to each piece.

Marion Held was born in New York City.  In 1977, she received an MA in Fine Arts from Montclair State University in New Jersey.  Since then she has participated in over thirty solo and group exhibitions in New York, New Jersey, Israel, and Poland.  Her work is represented in corporate and public collections throughout the world, including the Boleslawiec Museum in Poland; City of Beer-Sheva in Israel; Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan; The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Artist Library and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK; Library of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY; National Museum of American Art Library, Washington, D.C.  She is the recipient of various fellowships such as the Fundacion Valparaiso fellowship, five fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2003, 2002, 2001, 1999, 1998), and two from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts (2003, 1998).

More information on this artist can be found at http://www.marionheld.com/.

Three Figures, 1993
wood, stoneware
91" x 64" x 21"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.