Poetic Shapes: New Work by Cecilia Miguez

Five silver-fleshed women stand in casual mid-conversation on a sliver of sidewalk: poised, relaxed and thoroughly in their bodies.  It all seems perfectly normal except for the fact that each figure sports the head of an antelope or the softer profile of a gazelle.  Familiar and pleasing as these silhouettes may be, they are also otherworldly.  Just how pleasurable is the unknown? 

This duality, along with the wondrous double life of the dearly used now entwined with the newly made, propels the visual landscape of this current body of work created by Cecilia Miguez.  Whether the artist’s figural sculptures are presented on a small or large scale, they establish a supremely persuasive context. 

Bits of furniture, tools, gears, wheels or remnants of musical instruments stand in for body parts and the life of these found objects suggests a wealth of emotional resonances.  A chest of drawers torso, topped by an opalescent face made of bronze, is joined at the mid-point, where her heart should be, by a cube of polished wood.  With this meticulously choreographed use of objects, each form acquires a mythology, humanity and even a presence.  As for the ‘poetic shapes’ mentioned in the title, those spring directly, and equally meticulously, from the eye, hand and heart of the artist.

Ms. Miguez’s work is included in numerous public and private collections.  Louis Stern Fine Arts represents the artist exclusively.