Evocative of the Renaissance in style and inspiration, Gary Mauro' s fabric bas-reliefs stand at the vanguard of contemporary sculpture. The artist considers himself “a figurative sculptor working in an essentially neo-classical mode.” Yet his idiom is distinctly modern : sculpted fabric adds a third dimension to contours already accentuated by strokes of acrylic, chalk and graphite. He models fabric like another artist might use clay.
Critics are taken with Mauro's “lyrical” and “sensual” quality. “With lush sensuality, Gary Mauro's bas-relief figures emerge…drawn in the style of the Renaissance,” wrote ART news Magazine in a 1979 review. ART lines noted the artist's “unabashed love of the figure.”
His prime interest was drawing, which remains a key element in his work. Mauro uses live models, drawing them in a multitude of combinations. He considers the bas-reliefs “a hybrid between the two dimensional illusion of drawing and the three dimensional surface of sculpture.”
The largest of Mauro's bas-reliefs is a 70-foot horizontal pageant of female figures, cougars and birds commissioned by the First National Bank of Abilene, Texas. Other Mauro reliefs are included in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Fine Art, IBM Corporation, Gannett Corporation, USA Today, Florida Today, El Centro College of Dallas, Texas, and others. Private collectors include actress Elizabeth Taylor and artist R.C.Gorman.
