A new exhibit, Figurative Ceramics, was recently installed in the Los Medanos College Art Gallery. This most recent exhibit is a collaboration between renowned artist Lisa Reinertson and local artists Lucy Snow, Rosalinda Grejsen, Mary Lamb and Julee Richardson. There was a reception for the exhibit Thursday, Sept. 22.

This show came about after the aforementioned artists took Reinertson’s figurative sculpture class last fall. According to a flyer hanging in the gallery, the exhibition is “the celebration of the figure in its complex and diverse manifestation.”

Snow had always been an admirer of Reinertson’s work for quite some time and was excited to work with her because “she had been one of my heroes for a very long time.”

As students sauntered into the gallery, their eyes were immediately drawn to the bronze statue called “Woman with Lemur.” Reinertson said her work is heavily inspired by mythology.

Student Taylor Deas said she liked many of the pieces because it was taking something 2D and making it 3D. Snow said some of these pieces “were really challenging,” but that “you just gotta roll with it.”

Another piece that was commonly referenced throughout the gallery Reiniertson’s “Like a Bird on a Wire.”

Richardson said that it’s one of her favorites outside her own work. Her interpretation of the piece was religious. “It resembles the crucifixion of Jesus Christ – at least it does to me,” she said. In terms of her own work, she was inspired by African and African American culture. She mentioned wanting to showcase the aspects of black culture that often go ignored. One of her pieces, a ceramic figure of a little girl called “Unprotected,” “I want people to connect with the emotion and know that girl was hurt,” said Richardson.

One other popular pieces students felt inclined to snap pictures of, was Lamb’s “Martin.” The man who was the inspiration for the piece stood next to the bust. And at some point, even put his hat atop of it and posed for pictures.

The next art show slated for LMC is Day of the Dead themed. Figurative Ceramics is showing through Oct. 26.