Mary Oros Bio
Mary Oros has held previous careers in product design, but sculpture has always been
Mary’s first love. In 2005, after participating in a group show with Pacific Rim Sculptors,
her sculpture "Henry Takes His First Steps" was replicated in aluminum as a gift of the
Seward Johnson Atelier and installed at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.
Her sculptures have been exhibited at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Marin MOCA, di
Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, throughout the Bay Area, in Southern California, at
Art San Diego 2018, and Art Market San Francisco 2022 with Desta Gallery. She was
awarded third place in the 81st Crocker Kingsley 2022 exhibition, and her sculpture
“Flurry” was exhibited in the de Young Museum’s “deYoung Open 2023”. Her sculptures
are in several private collections, have been featured on the cover of Benicia Magazine,
and as an advertisement for Grounds for Sculpture in Sculpture Magazine.
Statement
MARY OROS
I begin my sculpture by drawing in space with my armature material and each line is an emotional response to the previous one drawn. I usually have a general concept and formal consideration in mind that is a carryover from my previous sculpture, but no specific plan for the final result. I am an observer as the sculpture evolves. While building, my main concern is for the piece to work well in the round so that there is a continuum of form anywhere I pause. Only after I’ve completed the sculpture am I able to articulate its meaning according to what was going on in or around my life at the time, so I title the works based on the movement of how the piece unfolds.
From start to finish my medium-sized pieces take at least three months to create with the majority of time spent building the armature. Once completed, the armature is very close to the final form. I coat and pack the armature with my mix of concrete - a recipe given to me by an engineer involved in bridge building. It is structural, stronger than I need, has some flexural as well as tensile strength, and allows me to work fairly thin keeping the weight down. When the base coat has set I topcoat it with decorative concrete with integral color, or most recently I have started painting the surface. All of my sculptures are intended for indoors. However, with a commission, they could be replicated, scaled to a determined size, and fabricated to be more suitable for outdoors using current technology and methods.