TAMPA, FL.- The Tampa Museum of Art presents the exhibit Luis Montoya and Leslie Ortiz: Revisions of Nature through January 7, 2007. Luis Montoya and Leslie Ortiz have been collaborating for over 20 years in a state-of-the-art studio in West Palm Beach. The sculptors specialize in creating monumental versions of fruit, vegetables, shells, and mollusks cast in bronze. Although their work drives from a Pop Art sensibility, the trompe l’oeil (fool-the-eye) objects are in fact more than a humorous take on nature gone awry. They are signifiers whose exaggerated scale intensifies their allegorical and metaphoric allusions.

The detailed forms of these finely crafted sculptures are first conceived in clay then translated into bronze through a rigorous, physical process. The objects are then welded, polished, and intricately patinated (colored) by the artists. The resulting sculptures are well-balanced compositions possessing unique rhythms and color. Many exude an anthropomorphic or sensuous quality and are intermixed with illusions of such varying textures as rope, palm fronds, wicker, and sticks. Superbly engineered, these super real sculptures invite the viewer to explore them visually, to marvel in their beauty, and to delight in the palpable pleasure of each luscious detail.