MARY OROS
Mary Oros comes from a creative background. Both her parents were industrial designers during the era of mid-century modern design. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Art where she was awarded an honorary scholarship for one year and a partial scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 1975 when she was awarded the Purchase Prize. In 1977 she earned a BFA in Sculpture from the Cleveland Institute of Art and received the Agnes Gund Award. While at Skowhegan, she met sculptor William King, who became a mentor and friend when she moved to NYC for a few years after art school. Through Bill, she had the opportunity to show one of her sculptures at the OK Harris Gallery's show "In the Event of Living Sculpture." Going to NYC's galleries and museums was completely eye-opening and inspiring, but in 1986 Mary moved to Santa Barbara, where her family had relocated.
Mary has held previous careers in product design, creating contemporary concrete garden planters, contemporary cast bronze furniture hardware, and contemporary cast resin costume jewelry, all of which have been sculptural. But sculpture has always been Mary’s first love, and she now feels grateful and fortunate to be making sculpture full-time. In 2005, after participating in a group show with Pacific Rim Sculptors, and as a gift of the Seward Johnson Atelier, her sculpture "Henry Takes His First Steps" was replicated in aluminum and installed at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. Her sculptures have been shown 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 prestigious 81st Crocker Kingsley 2023 exhibition, and her sculpture “Flurry” was exhibited in the deYoung Museum’s “deYoung Open 2023”. Mary’s sculptures have been featured on the cover and in Benicia Magazine, as an advertisement for Grounds for Sculpture in Sculpture Magazine, and are in several private collections.
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.