Review: Headless Sculptures, Custom Scents, and 76 Drawings by a 20th-Century Art Heroine at Lumber Room

"Chief curator Libby Werbel sets the show up as a sensory séance, with sculptures of shapeshifting bodies paired with gestural wall works and olfactory elements. Woman-owned perfumery OLO Fragrance designed distinct scents for both gallery levels- Unconscious on the ground floor, Conscious upstairs. Upon entry, a damp, earthy note wraps around Albuquerque's figure sculpture "The Left Hand of Darkness" and Bourgeois' painted bronze ribcage"Torso, Self-Portrait.""

"On the second level, a resinous fragrance mingles with the beeswax candle burning between the legs of Albuquerque's plaster figure "Orgy For Ten People In One Body: Two." Albuquerque's materials-steel, glowy oil on aluminum, even real blood-pulse with sensual charge. A plaster foot curls in orgasm, a bronze groin fuses with a saxophone, and a disembodied arm, blued with cupric nitrate, sprouts flora."

"Patinated bronze wildflowers rise from beach wood and lava rock. In "Mother and Child," from her Alien Spring series, a two-headed steel flower balances on root-legs. Using 3D scans and multimedium casts of her own body to create her figural works, Albuquerque reveals transformative states. These are bodies-in-process, wandering in form, melding with and extending Bourgeois' vision. Bourgeois' reflections on ritual and the psyche ground the show. Her "Untitled"drawing, in ink and crayon on sheet music paper, reveals a curious pattern of layered orbs."

Isabelle Albuquerque revives the ancient wandering womb myth through drawings, figural sculptures, and multimedia works paired with Louise Bourgeois pieces. Chief curator Libby Werbel stages a sensory séance that pairs shapeshifting bodies and gestural wall works with distinct olfactory elements by OLO Fragrance: Unconscious downstairs, Conscious upstairs. Scents and a beeswax candle mingle with sculptures, amplifying tactile and emotional resonances. Materials range from steel, oil on aluminum, and real blood to plaster, bronze, cupric nitrate, beach wood, and lava rock. Works employ 3D scans and multimedium casts of Albuquerque's body to depict bodies-in-process and transformative states.

Read at Portland Mercury