Behind the Scenes of "caesura" by Martha Russo 

Step into caesura and learn how the exhibition came together from the artist's ideas to installing artworks in the gallery.
Colorado-based sculptor Martha Russo (American, b. 1962) is an alchemist of material manipulation, hybridizing commonplace objects with fine media. The resulting artworks invite an experience that is at once familiar and strange, engaging not only the visual sense but also smell, proprioception, and memory. Curious observation and embrace of the caesura - the pause, a breath - offer space for questions, reflection, connection, and integration of understanding. Look slowly and deeply to find yourself in the monumental and minuscule that make up caesura.
The artist’s unconventional approach to object making is equally informed by her background in science and as a world-class athlete as it is her formal training in ceramics. With her Olympics-bound field hockey career cut short by a devastating injury, Russo channeled her athletic spirit and medical education into a parallel avenue of inquiry - that of creative practice. Subsequently, an interdisciplinary vocabulary touches the viscera of what we are made of, reminds us of who we are, and encourages exploration of our relationship to self, others, and the world around us.
Video by Joshua Dorado for the Galleries of Contemporary Art at UCCS, 2024