Jack Fischer Gallery is honored to present the debut of Ash Dancer, a meticulously constructed, life-sized, self-drawing, human skeleton made of solid graphite, and its accompanying drawings by native San Francisco artist, Agelio Batle. It is the featured artwork in his first solo show with the gallery, entitled murmur/ tremble, which will also include, paintings and sculpture.

Like a pencil, the graphite skeleton draws impressions of itself, on a specially constructed, high frequency vibrating table. With its flat surface covered in Vellum paper, direct impressions of a “figure” are made, as the shaking boneʼs edges mark the white paper. Consequently, the bones slowly become consumed in the process and will eventually disappear. These large drawings, each unique, will be continuously generated throughout the life of the skeleton, until it erodes away completely.

For Ash Dancer, its graphite has made a long journey. First, exhumed from a deep, million-year hibernation, it is incarnated briefly into a skeleton body. Through its eroding dance, it will perish once again, while simultaneously resurrecting its body through the resulting “figure” drawings. Many of the works in the show contain graphite, which the artist describes as a “potent” material. The carbon remains of animal and plant life that perished eons ago, it is the focus of much technological development including, NASA developed heat-shields, Nano-structures, advanced cell-phone batteries as well as itʼs more humble use in pencils.

Ash Dancer serves as a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life. Through it, fact and alchemy intermingle, postulating more metaphysical musings. Is the graphite skeleton a "tool" or "the" sculpture? Are the graphite impressions "drawings" or a "map" of its movement? Who is really drawing and whose hand is at work?

Agelio Batle is a multi-discipline artist adept at shifting between practices in sculpture, painting, installation, performance art, as well as craft and design. His interest in material investigative work stems from his background in both the sciences and the arts, having earned a BA in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1986) and a MFA degree in Fine Art from the California College of the Arts with High Honors (1993). His early ceramic work was chosen by New Yorkʼs American Craft Museum to represent the best work in the country by artists under thirty years old in their Young Americans exhibition. His work has since been featured in galleries and museums and across the United States, including at Jack Fischer Gallery, Lois Lambert Gallery, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Joseʼs Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Museum in Washington DC and in American Craft Council Shows in Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta and many other cities. Recently, he has completed residencies at The Workshop Residence in San Francisco and Tbilisi, Georgia. Watch a short preview of Ash Dancer here.