Metis Atash's new sculptures arrive at the Aldo Castillo Gallery.

Transcendent Beauty

​Metis Atash’s exquisite Punk Buddha figures radiate a presence far greater than their size within the architectural spaces where they are admired, coveted, and collected.  The German sculptor, who is currently Miami-based, embarked upon a career in art only after completing a degree in political economics in her native Germany and subsequently achieving success in investor relations consultancy.  Arguably, the formality of her education and the inventiveness that she brought to business helped inform the creativity and meticulousness with which she conceives and executes her acclaimed Swarovski-encrusted sculptural projects.  
 
Even as Atash acknowledges the wide-eyed reaction of gallery and art fair-goers when they first spot the bejeweled Buddhas resting cross-legged on shelves or pedestals, she asks us to suspend our belief in the beauty of their sparkling materiality, long enough to embrace their totemic essence. This is no mean feat, given that, at first glance, her painted and crystal forms seem seductive objects of contemporary desire.  Still, Atash rejects facile interpretation of her art, preferring to explore the philosophical core that transcends the glittering commercial aspect of her work. Fundamental to the artist’s thinking is her embrace of the universal ‘Law of Attraction’, a philosophy that holds we attract what we desire , and her faith in the Law’s necessary ‘duality in life,’ or simply put, knowing what we do not desire brings each of us closer to knowing what we really want. These twin concepts, which inform the foundation of her life and work, are represented by her Buddha figures.
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By Denise Gerson
Former Associate Director, Curator, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

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