Seated Bather/Oturan
Ciplak (in grey-white Muğla marble), is a recent sculpture that is inspired by
the Neolithic female figurines that are found in various settlements in the
Near East and Turkey. Dominated by curves, the fragmented form includes a
single breast, elongated neck, and a pregnant belly in a nod to fertility and
labor. The seated female figure
represents an archetypal form that appears from prehistory through modernity.
Uras has often worked with ceramic vessel forms that reference the female body.
This work in marble, which originated as a smaller ceramic sculpture, was a
result of her intent to scale up her sculptures to sizes she cannot safely
realize with the ceramic medium.

Elif Uras attended Brown University and Columbia Law School before
receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts and a Master
of Fine Arts from Columbia University. She has exhibited nationally and
internationally, including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, MoMA PS1, and
the 9th Shanghai Biennale and is represented in numerous public and private
collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum and
Istanbul Modern.