Viewing Samantha Thornton

After years spent as a specialist at Sotheby’s Old Master Sculpture Department, Samantha Thornton decided to try her own hand at creating striking sculptural works — a cancer diagnosis inspired her to waste no time. Now, a selection of her bronze and stone creations are on view at Bernard Chauchet Contemporary Art, demonstrating her interest in exploring different techniques and effects with the alternating materials. With her bronze works, Thornton starts with wax, building realistic figures whose fluid body movements contrast with the rigidity of the medium. However, her stone carvings are far more abstract, painstakingly hammered, chiseled and hand polished with sandpaper to create curving arcs with unexpected angles and points. Through these two styles, Thornton meditates on her interest in the human form, prompted by her illness and her experience of using that time to focus on her body and its healing.