ArtArts & Entertainment

M Squared Gallery Presents: “Totems Beyond the Patriarchy”

Featuring works by artist Becky Soria.
by Barrett White

Amber and Pearl 36 x 60 mix media by Becky Soria
Amber and Pearl 36 x 60 mix media by Becky Soria

Perhaps you’ve seen symbolism, heart, feminism, and representation in art before, but not like the works by Becky Soria.

Soria depicts the female, male, and animalistic figures with a unique approach. Rather than tracing the familiar outline and creating a generic picture, Soria creates from within them, setting focus on visceral emotion and life, rather than the outward faces. “I construct their interiority outwards,” Soria says. “I strive to make visible . . . their pains and pleasures and longings.”

Though nature has been represented as a female organic form throughout many ancient cultures, it began, for a time, to be illustrated as male. As of lately, however, the trend has been back to viewing the natural world as feminine once again, with women becoming increasingly recognized as a crucial part of society.

This being said, viewing Soria’s work is touching and radiant, serving to remind us of the issues we face in this time, reinventing the female figure as taking on the environment and the pains of the world. Soria likes to play with juxtaposition between representations of the animals and plants in compromised and ailing conditions and the female body form, which seems to swallow and revive the life, as is in nature. These infused aspects of Her creation render a sense of hope for a future in which the maternal provides a healing force to an ailing planet.

See Becky Soria’s work on the interchangeability of body and nature at M Squared Gallery from May 9 through May 31, 2014. Opening reception on May 9, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

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Barrett White

Barrett White is a regular contributor to OutSmart Magazine.

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