APU Art Student Displays Exhibit Featuring 60-Foot Sculpture

Azusa Pacific University Master of Fine Arts student Madison E. Lucas from Ogden, Utah, is featuring her exhibition “Maístrye” at APU’s Duke Gallery, located on Azusa Pacific University’s West Campus, at 701 E. Foothill Blvd. The exhibit runs July 11-14, with a reception on July 11 from 6-8 p.m. The exhibit is open to the public.

The term “maístrye” is defined as a woman’s power to make decisions for herself and to have mastery or dominion over her life and skills. The show consists of a 60-foot soft crochet sculpture along with charcoal musings displayed on the gallery walls. The sculpture took Lucas almost three years to create. All of the yarn used was donated to the artist as scraps from projects and failed crochet attempts. This gives the work a lively variation of colors, type, and texture. This show follows the journey of a female artist wrestling with the way she views herself. Lucas leans into the irony of the stereotype that crochet is a woman’s work, unworthy to be seen as high art, to bring awareness of the value placed on women and their work. She elevates this technique and material to the fine art world through exaggeration and personal agency. The show can only be understood by seeing it in person.

Lucas is a sculptural artist and conservator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her work often deals with themes of meditation and inward reflection mixed with experiences from her life, manifested through abstract sculptures. The marks and symbols that she creates are intended to draw the viewer’s eye across the work to cultivate a sense of calm. Often, her work has an interactive element, making the gallery space more accessible to viewers and encouraging patrons to spend time with the work. Lucas has been active as an artist since 2017 and has worked with photography, found art, ceramics, and textiles.

For more information about Lucas’ work, contact madisonlucasart@gmail.com or follow @madisonlucasart on Instagram.