Though Kendra Frorup often constructs her sculptures from less-than-romantic materials — for instance, found dishes, table legs, wax, metal — she invariably manages to transform such materials into something enchanting. And though Frorup's work is informed by her life experience as a mother and by her Bahamian roots, viewers don't need any background knowledge to connect with it.
Last year, one of her large-scale sculptures in a University of Tampa exhibit invited visitors to push a lever around a circular wooden track that filled the gallery. On the opposite end of the lever, a wax rendering of a child's head balanced precariously on a stack of dishes. Nudged to the brink of discomfort, visitors were made to choose between the risk of pushing and the disappointment of not taking a risk. (A metaphor for the complexities of parenting?)
Through Aug. 8, Hillsborough Community College's Ybor School of Visual and Performing Arts honors Frorup — formerly an adjunct faculty member at HCC, now a professor at UT — with an exhibit of recent prints and sculptures. The gallery, at the corner of Palm Ave. and 15th Street, is open Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2008.