BIOGRAPHY

Barbara Sorensen is a nationally recognized sculptor and printmaker best known for her large-scale geological forms in clay, resins and metals.  In her work, Sorensen forms hand built structures which are simple and balanced. Sorensen pushes the clay out from within, expanding the shape to emulate the earth’s crust.   Highly textured surfaces and hints of gold create an ambiguity in her work suggesting a reference to antiquity.

Moving from her original works in clay, Sorensen has recently focused her energy on large-scale works in metal and resins constructing environmental vessels which focus on human-landscape relationships. Inspired by her travels to the worlds most rugged and remote settings, Sorensen’s simple, yet monumental forms take the viewer on a topographical expedition.  She sees the vast landscape as an allegory for life.  “Most of my forms relate to the notion of the vessel which I feel represents containers of our spirits as metaphors for our bodies.  It teaches me that there is a rhythm to life, an ebb and flow with ourselves and others as we continue to move inward and outward while maintaining a sense of forward momentum.”

Educated at the University of Wisconsin, Sorensen has studied art around the world with leading ceramic artists including mentors Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner and Rudy Autio, who calls Sorensen’s “looming forms…balanced ambiguously, challenging gravity in defiance of an uneasy truce with nature...”

With studios in Snowmass Village, Colorado and Winter Park, Florida, Sorensen continues her progress as an artist through the study of environment and geological formations through extensive travels and continued explorations.