Press Release

Mrs. is very pleased to share a new large-scale sculpture by gallery artist Carolyn Salas at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center August 23 - September 11, 2022, presented by The Armory Show and the United States Tennis Association. The sculpture will be on view coinciding with the tournament and fair.

Carolyn Salas’ sculptures come from a place of abstraction and narrative with a focus on the simplification of the human form. Salas’ works begin as delicate maquettes cut by hand. Scaled up into monumental planar forms, with elements that bend away and intersect at angles, the metal retains its wobbly hand-cut edges, showing the spontaneity of the artist’s hand. The overlapping shapes, stacked and sandwiched, give each object depth and substance, while their stark white surfaces allow them to disappear and reappear, mirages drawn in air. 

In its abstraction, Salas’ work suggests a more complicated and contemporary dialogue derived from ancient and art-historical cornerstones, while simultaneously engaging conflicting expectations of womanhood. Feminine identity is presented as a balancing act: precarious and full of contrasting possibilities hovering/teetering, tight rope walking and the fragility of time. With opposing forces of softness and strength, Salas’ works command a physical presence, while remaining light and airy.

For Tippy Toes, the artist contemplates stability and grounding while ruminating on lines from an Aldous Huxley poem: “So throw away your baggage and go forward….you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage..” The feet in the sculpture, poised on their toes, bring to mind the stilled moment before action.

Carolyn Salas was born in Hollywood, CA. She earned a BFA in sculpture from the College of Santa Fe and an MFA from Hunter College.  She has attended residencies at the Abrons Art Center A.I.R. Space Program and The NARS Foundation, New York, NY; Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY; the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT;  and the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM. She has also been a Chashama Studio Space recipient, and an Elizabeth Foundation Studio Program/Space awardee. Selected exhibitions include the Berkshire Museum, Berkshire MA; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, CA; Casey Kaplan, Koenig & Clinton, Brookfield Arts, SPRING/BREAK Art Show and Kate Werble Gallery, New York, Mrs., Maspeth, NY; Terrault Contemporary and Towson University, Baltimore, MD; Páramo Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico; and NADA Special Projects, Miami, FL.  Most recently, Salas was awarded Artist-in-Residence at Stoneleaf Retreat, NY, for summer 2022.  

For more information please contact hello@mrsgallery.com.