ART AS EXTREME BEAUTY: THE OUTRAGEOUSLY FEMININE MARBLE SCULPTURES OF BARBARA SEGAL AT THE DOMAINE DALMERAN IN PROVENCE

"Flight of Fancy," White Marble & Bronze, by Barbara Segal at the Domaine Dalmeran

Art as “extreme beauty” in all its acute details is the theme evoked by the translucent marble sculptures of lingerie and dresses by Barbara Segal whose sumptuous creations marry her mesmerizing childhood memories of elegant tissues and garments with a talent honed during five years of apprenticeship in Italy chiseling and shaping marble from the quarries in Carrara.

A native New Yorker who makes frequent extended sojourns to Europe, Barbara fashions marble into delicate lace and tissue by the interplay — a gavotte mind you — of light and shadows across a velvet surface which comingles with the richness of detail to render her pieces with a lush sensuality.

"Le Corp Bustier," Marble, Onyx, Amethyst and Pyrite, by Barbara Segal on display at the Domaine Dalmeran until August 17

In the past decade, Barbara has plunged herself into several public works projects: multimedia sculpture charting the Saw Mill / Nepperham river, “Drawn to the Water” for the West Harlem Public Art fund, and, in 2006 – 2007, she created “wrapping” refuse trucks in Yonkers, NY — art wraps depicting imagery the promoted environmental awareness.

Tony Soulié's series of blown-glass sculptures of animals with their prey clamped in their mouths at the Domaine Dalmeran

Rather than nurturing plants, the greenhouse of the Domaine Dalmeran is transformed into a pictorial refuge of wild animals in the artistic crosshairs of Tony Soulié and Corine Ferté.

Gripped by a fascination of animals and their territorial conquests during a visit to the Zuni Pueblo in northwestern New Mexico, the prodigious artist Tony Soulié displays his series of blown-glass sculptures of animals with their prey clamped in their mouths; the sculpted transparent lucidity of the predators contrasts vividly with the opaque passive taxidermy of their prey.

 

Tony Soulié : the sculpted transparent lucidity of the predators contrasts vividly with the opaque passive taxidermy of their prey

Animals are at the heart of the work of the painter Corine Ferté. Inspired by the vulnerability of these creatures, Corine Ferté creates images of animals in their natural environment shown in a series oil-on-canvas paintings hung on the greenhouse walls that encircle the display of Tony Soulié.

Oil on Canvas by Corine Ferté at the Domaine Dalmeran

Viewing these paintings of Corine Ferté summons up the reflection of W.G. Sebold in his stupefying novel “Austerlitz”: a thought “anchored in his memory” that animals and humans who observe them, look at each other “across a gap of incomprehension.”

Oil on canvas paintings by Corine Ferte

The exhibit at the Domaine Dalmeran, which also features works of artists Frédérique Gauton and Claude Viallet, runs until August 17.

Barbara Segal chats with guests in front of her "Black Swan," portrait of a corset of Belgium Black Marble

 

Basics

Barbara Segal: Email, barbarasegal@optonline.net, website

Corine Ferté: website

Tony Soulié: website gallery, website prints, website older glass sculptures

Exhibit until August 17 at the Domaine Dalmeran, 45, ave Notre-Dame-du-Château, Saint-Etienne-du-Grès , Tel 04 90 49 04 04,

Email, chateau.dalmeran@wanadoo.fr, website

APART Festival: website

Note: For wine enthusiasts, the Domaine de Trevallon is on the same road.

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