Wax Works
The miniature, wax-carved sculptures of Kate Budd bring an air of beauty, desire, and fecundity to the Olin Art Gallery, opening on January 27 and continuing through February 26.
The Akron, Ohio-based artist will discuss the exhibition, titled "Talisman," and her work at 7:00 p.m. on February 17 in the Olin Auditorium, followed by a reception in the gallery.
The exhibition includes more than 30 of Budd's delicate and translucent pieces, which are intimate in scale. Her use of wax is sometimes enhanced with beads, pins, and thread. The objects of Budd's desire include "egg," "conch," and "golden peach."
"Through artfulness, a humble material and dark subject matter can be transformed into an object that seduces," Budd said in a statement. "I seek archetypal forms, creating hybrids that take emotional cues from the human body but that have the singularity of fruit, shells, roots or eggs." Carving blocks of wax, her ideas change as she works intuitively to "learn what the piece is by making it."
An Ohio museum director said Budd's carvings "tenderly whisper volumes about interiority, desire, and existence."
Budd has exhibited her work at William Busta Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio; Carnegie Galleries, Covington, Kentucky; College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooser, Ohio; Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio; Sculpture Center, Cleveland; Rudolph Poissant Gallery, Houston, Texas; Mitchell Gallery, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art; and Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Budd is an associate professor of art at the University of Akron. She taught previously at the University of Texas for three years. Budd won an Ohio Arts Council individual excellence award in 2006 and an Individual Artist Fellowship in 2003. She earned a bachelor's in fine art at the Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland, and a master's at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
For more information about the exhibit and the gallery, visit www2.kenyon.edu or contact director Dan Younger at 740-427-5346 and at younger@kenyon.edu. The gallery is free and open to the public on Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.