Aldo Castillo Gallery
Metis Atash's new sculptures arrive at the gallery
New Punk Buddha sculptures reached Fifth Avenue South.
Transcendent Beauty
Metis Atash's new sculptures arrive at the Aldo Castillo Gallery in downtown Naples, FL.
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.
By Denise Gerson
Former Associate Director, Curator, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
