'Masculine Places'

Commonwheel’s “Masculine Places” gallery show includes Jon Sargent, Maria Battista, and Chris Alvarez. Each artist’s work explores the theme in their own way and media.

Jon Sargent’s use of black and white photography featuring the male nude figure in natural settings defines his ideas of masculinity in our present time. “May this exhibit give us a sense that masculine places are where men belong, find meaning in responsibilities, and are defined through their choices.”

Maria Battista’s sculptures heighten the theme through bronze and alabaster. Public and private-commission sculptor Maria Battista births figures and portraits that are engaged in wonderment about the nature of reality. She is the owner-artisan of First Circle Studios, her space for the emergence of bronze, stone, and precious metal sculptures that celebrate the embodiment of spirit in the human being.

Chris Alvarez’s oil paintings show the viewer places that Chris identifies as masculine. Now a well-known figure drawing and painting teacher in the Pikes Peak region, Chris taught drawing at UCCS. After teaching a decade at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts, Chris opened the Alvarez Art School in 2010, where he teaches drawing and painting to adults and children.