Barbara Sorensen, who made her name with ceramic sculpture, has extended her interest in the natural landscape by expanding her material base and aesthetic composition. Open through April 14, 2013, Barbara Sorensen: Elemental features sculptural forms constructed from rope, wire, resin, aluminum, and mixed media evoking tide pools, sand dunes, and topographical formations. Sorensen connects the landscape to the human, organic body-offering responses that are felt as much as seen.

Barbara Sorensen, Dwellings (detail), 2010 Powder-coated aluminum Collection of the Artist Photography: Randall Smith

Sorensen has long been manipulating material to echo the natural landscape. In their surface textures and glazes, her ceramic sculptures often suggested the varied textures of this planet's crust. There is sense that these works not only depict features of the earth's surface and the artist's response to them, but they were also created out of the same fundamental material. Her glazes suggest cooled lava flows, fissures in the landscape, and striations in rock outcroppings. Although Sorensen's work in ceramics has provided her with a solid understanding of working in three dimensions, her more recent work incorporates materials that allow her even more "room" to maneuver since the physical weight of the earlier ceramic sculpture has been minimized. Whether powder-coated aluminum constructed into net or web-like forms, or rope and resin in concave shapes, these works convey a sense of organic phenomenon on both a microscopic and macroscopic level.

Sorensen makes distinctive connections between the body, the topography of the land, and vessels-playing off of the symbolic potential of each. For example, with her Dwellings series of open structures made of metal, she does not dictate how the pieces should be understood, but rather shares that the large-scale offers people the opportunity to imagine them as places to "crouch and remain inside." They become vessels, of sorts, that could protect as well as isolate someone. Evoking the natural world in form, not just image, the artist engages the senses.

Barbara Sorensen studied at the University of Wisconsin and with sculptors--such as Rudy Autio, Don Reitz, and Peter Voulkos--who were pushing the field of ceramics in new directions. In addition to being included in many public and private collections, her work is featured in numerous publications and has been exhibited internationally.

RAM at 10 | Growing America's Craft Collection

For its tenth anniversary and in honor of the area's rich artistic legacy, RAM is pleased to bring together the work of two acclaimed artists who call Racine their hometown. Looking back on the decade-long journey and the nature of the arts in Racine, the museum is hosting a series of exhibitions exploring the themes of heritage, heirlooms, and artistic traditions.

The first shows of this series are solo exhibitions for two artists, Karen Gunderson and Barbara Sorensen, who were raised in Racine before moving on to establish careers of national importance in other parts of the country. Both artists connect to the natural environment in intensely personal ways. While one prefers to create paintings and the other sculpture, both Gunderson and Sorensen present insightful and poetic reflections of the natural world. Their responses to their chosen subjects are different but also create a vivid dialogue as their works in different media are presented intermingled in one gallery space, allowing for a "conversation" between the individual objects.