M.L. Snowden’s dual sculptures, Lumino and Lumina, connect together to form an important threshold for the sculptor’s exploration of light. Weaving a graceful and curvilinear trellis, the sculptor has traced two abstract water-drops that conceptually split visible light into a rainbow arc. Through wave-like forms and polarized particles of male and female figural elements, Snowden creatively explores the idea that bronze sculpture as well as human forms re-focus energy in the manner of a prism, revealing previously hidden qualities.

Lumino in particular, rises with unfolding muscular ease. Indeed, Lumino’s shoulders, rising arms and hands impart a remarkable sense of inevitability and divine appointment to the work. As Remo Nevi observes, “In this effortless figure, the silvered mirror of humanity’s soul pools and collects in a certain kind of radiance.” In counterbalance, Lumina ascends to the pinnacle of the compositional arch and forms its own delicate balance. As Nevi further observes, “Snowden’s ultimate ability to infuse joy into bronze shimmers quietly about the head and shoulders of Lumina.” As Nevi concludes, “the ephemeral rainbow glows for mere moments yet here in Lumino and Lumina, it lives forever recast in a new frame of reference and contemplation.”

A metallurgical accomplishment for the casting and chasing of lost wax bronze, Lumino and Lumina share a weighted suspension calculation that treats skeins of bronze as a tapestry out of which figuration arises and binds. With minimal supporting mass, attenuation and webbing become exquisitely articulated in Lumina and Lumina as the bronze itself transforms away from its traditional role of fleshing form to engage in Snowden’s architectural suspensions. Here, the deeper realms of Snowden’s ground-breaking private meditations on forging bronze can be seen as much as felt.