Keri Straka: Biological Tithing

Boston Sculptors Gallery presents Keri Straka: Biological Tithing, on view June 13 to July 14, 2024. Straka’s sculptural works conjure clusters of cells, tissue, organs, and bones, while posing intimate questions about the anatomy of the human soul as witnessed by the aging human body. Composed of stuffed and sewn textiles, bone-like ceramic forms, and found objects, Straka’s sculptures probe their soft landscape, luxuriously cascading outward. Tender gestures in pink intermingle with hard ceramic bits, pressing upward and receding back into vulnerable nylon membranes. Two series of related watercolors are also on display in the artist’s second solo show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.

Straka’s delicate crimson watercolors compliment her sculpture, centering on circles, intersecting each other and other organic forms, alluding to cellular division, the moon’s phases, and the staining of menstrual blood. These circular perimeters serve to both harness and protect.

While tithing is essentially the act of giving back a percentage of one’s income, and historically related to religion, Straka expands on the concept, wondering whether molted cells could be collected and used to patch and protect skin as it becomes threadbare with age or illness. Alternatively, she muses at the possibility of cells and tissues—broken, stray, and lost—being sutured back together, the artist’s needle and thread becoming a means of longevity.

Keri Straka holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in Ceramics. She is a Professor of ceramics at Framingham State University, and maintains her studio at The Mills Contemporary Art in Framingham, MA.

Keri Straka: Biological Tithing runs concurrently with Claudia Olds Goldie About Face.

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