MARITA DINGUS | ANCIENT ONES

A vital voice in contemporary sculpture, Dingus transforms discarded materials—plastic, metal, wire, and salvaged objects—into powerful figurative works that confront histories of dispossession and survival. Her practice treats reuse as both a material strategy and a cultural imperative, reclaiming what has been cast aside and imbuing it with memory and presence. These materials are never neutral: they speak to marginalization while also embodying resilience and the capacity to endure. Ancient Ones centers on ancestry, cultural continuity, and our fundamental connection to the land. As Dingus writes: “The Ancient Ones represent our cultural attachment to the Earth. This is most visibly associated with Black and Brown people. Their resistance to cultural deterioration brought about by conquest, colonization, religious imposition, and industrialization is a legacy I honor. I celebrate the endurance of our human attachment to the natural world, and our efforts to save ourselves by saving the Earth.” The sculptures move between figuration and abstraction. Faces are often clearly recognizable, while the bodies are built from pieced-together industrial materials. In some works, hands are suggested through found elements—faucet handles, stones, and other objects—used with a poetic sense of substitution. This contrast creates a tension between the familiar and the unexpected; figures that feel both human and constructed, grounded yet transformed. With Ancient Ones, Dingus advances a deeply resonant body of work that speaks to material histories, cultural survival, and the urgency of our relationship to the natural world, inviting viewers to reconsider what is discarded, what is preserved, and what must endure.

Event Links

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3591625-0

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