Sarah Ippolito at Various Small Fires

In the gravel courtyard at Various Small Fires, a pill-shaped black sandbox houses a dazzling array of ceramic specimens. Each work is an exploration of a diverging organic form, each glazed in a shock of fluorescent color — they float together like microbes viewed under a microscope. This work, titled Phytoplankton Bloom, cues us into Ippolito’s logic — there is aqueous life here. Life that is outside of our understanding. Life that is meant to be studied and revered.

Across the courtyard, a tree-like, blue-patinaed bronze erupts with delicate tendrils. This form — in which small nodes cascade from a larger monolithic structure — is repeated in a head-high sculpture in the gallery, Fanning into the Current, each filament painted in a range of pinks, accented by pollen-yellow tips. The tree pedestal-bound works feel alien and alive — each is drenched in unique patterns and colors, recalling Ken Price’s undulating forms.

Many of Ippolito’s biomorphic forms pull from direct observation (via scuba-diving or research into deep ocean organisms). She pulls aesthetic inspiration from an array of creatures to create fantastical forms that invite viewers to reimagine the world around us as something otherworldly and sublime.

Photo: Sarah Ippolito, Liquid Realm, installation view. Image courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires.