Isotta Page
Isotta Page (b. 1996) is an Italian-American artist, dividing her time between Rome and Valencia. She earned her MFA in Sculpture and Contemporary Art History from the University of Edinburgh's College of Art in 2020.
The backbone of Isotta’s sculpture practice is a love for manipulating materials; she draws inspiration from both traditional craft methods and modern industrial processes. Recently she has begun carving marble, developing a series under the title Dark Optimism: Ghost in the Stone. In this work Isotta is exploring ecological and geological themes, creating abstracted studies of the human figure emerging from raw stone. Viewing her work as three-dimensional drawings, she juxtaposes carved and un-carved elements to contemplate the body's connection to the land. Isotta's interest in marble diverges from an imitation of classical aesthetics, focusing instead on the material's unique ability to provoke consciousness raising on geological time. The work seeks to foster a "Dark Optimism" about our capacity to understand the brevity of our time on this planet offering perspective by aligning the mundane struggles of daily life with geological time. Prior to her work in marble from 2020 to 2022, Isotta worked with recycled styrofoam, resin, and fiberglass, employing techniques from boat and motorcycle manufacturing to create large-scale outdoor and hanging sculptures. In 2023, Isotta made a transition from sculpting styrofoam with hot wire tools to carving marble using chisels, air hammers, and diamond saws, influenced by her training with master marble carver Umberto Corsucci in Italy.![Photo of Isotta Page](/art/artist picture.jpg)
Dark Optimism Series
Shoulderscape I & II comment on the body in, on and as part of the landscape. Human shoulders emerge from raw stone, a neck and chest dissolve into deep folds of sliced marble. Beyond this, the sculptures eschew further anatomical detail, transitioning into curved, concave, polished planes resembling oyster or clam shells. These shell-like features contrast with the rough, un-carved marble, emphasizing its natural, unaltered state.