Hap Gallery is proud to present In the Eye of the Beholder, an exhibition of sculpture by Tanya Batura. The opening reception is September 1, 2016 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Viewing hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. The exhibition will run through October 1, 2016.

In In the Eye of the Beholder, Tanya Batura presents a group of challenging sculptural works that mine territories of mortality, beauty, and the human psyche. Her perfected surfaces seduce the viewer; her forms embody a deeper consideration of the human
condition. One can see her affinity with Mapplethorpe in her elegantly pristine sculptures with allusions to the abnormalities and pathologies of the human body. Balancing the macabre and absurd with delicacy, her work seduces the viewer. Her interplay of abstraction and realism creates a sense of the uncanny, presenting humanity in all of its repulsive, elegant, uncomfortable, humorous, and frightening states of existence.

For In the Eye of the Beholder, Tanya Batura has included a group of photographs of completed works, works in-process, and sculptural components that use composition, color, and light to control a viewer’s experience of a particular object. In capturing moments that are an “ideal,” the photographs amplify one of the many intended reads of the physical work.

Tanya Batura received her BFA from the University of Washington, Seattle and received her MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has shown nationally and internationally; recent exhibitions include Lineage: Mentorship & Learning at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA; We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles, a Collateral Event of the 2015 Venice Biennale, Magazzino del Sale, Venice, Italy; Head Space: New Works by Tanya Batura and Brian Cooper, Jaus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Another Thing Coming, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA. Batura’s work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, Artillery Magazine, Beautiful/Decay, and Artforum, among other publications. Her sculptures are in the permanent collections of Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; and Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, AZ. Batura lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.