HARD EXTERIOR/SOFT BENEATH

Ira Sherman and Pamela Frankel Fiedler’s remarkable art works are an exceptionally potent pairing. This unique collaborative exhibition juxtaposes the unparalleled biomechanical exoskeleton sculptures of Ira Sherman with Pamela Frankel Fiedler’s, unapologetically sensual, contemporary figurative oil paintings. Sherman’s cool undulating liquid-like metal, the ‘HARD EXTERIOR’, against the ‘SOFT BENEATH’, found in Frankel Fiedler’s depiction of supple warm skin, becomes the essence of this significant collaborative exhibition. HARD EXTERIOR/SOFT BENEATH offers a visceral experience of movement, sensuality and startling originality.

IRA SHERMAN has flipped the myth of the chastity belt on its head. By reframing the metallic device as wearable fashion, these remarkable sculptures offer a spectrum of emotions, from revenge or permission to emotional healing or redemption. HARD EXTERIOR/SOFT BENEATH highlights mechanized masterpieces from Sherman’s “Hardcore Chastity Couture” collection: intimate armor offering protection and empowerment. Sherman’s study of modern to medieval prosthetic devices brought him the added mechanic of pneumatics that allow parts of his kinetic sculptures to pulsate with a lifelike breathy sound and motion. His art works are welded, forged, embossed, pressed and bejeweled with expert craftsmanship. Sherman is a master jeweler, internationally recognized metal sculptor, designer and intuitive engineer. His work is in the Smithsonian, and his series of biomechanical wearable sculptures have been seen in galleries across the nation and featured on avant-garde fashion runways.

PAMELA FRANKEL FIEDLER, in this dynamic collaboration, captures Sherman’s sculptures as her muse and translates them onto canvas using her tools, her voice and her distinctive style. The viewer is compelled to place themselves into the painting, to imagine donning Sherman’s sculpture and to experience self-transformation. Frankel Fiedler uses everyday people as models, honoring the flaws that endear us to one another. “I want others to see through my eyes; to see that the body is beautiful as it ages. However, it is important that the viewer also see the subject as strong, intelligent and courageous; a real person exhibiting actual life-experience.” Her mastery of the human form, with its folds, shadows and curves, as well as her use of stark shadows cast against the soft lines of warm flesh has won her both international and local acclaim.

HARD EXTERIOR/SOFT BENEATH is more than a static art exhibition, it is an

undulating liquid participative encounter, a visceral experience with movement,

sensuality and startling originality. A vital experience.