A trio of Bermuda’s top female artists will be opening an imaginative exhibition on Friday featuring everything from mosaic-dressed mannequins, to figurative photography, painting and sculpture at the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation in Devonshire.

The Elliot Gallery exhibition titled ‘New Body of Work’ includes artists Amanda Temple, Shelly Hamill and Gabriela Brunner.

Mrs. Hamill has been working in tile mosaic for two years and is currently working in sculpture mosaics. This collection of her work offers life-size mannequins, created from busts obtained from local stores.

To make an armature or underskirt, she first sculpted wire mesh and then concreted it to create the dress form. Tile was applied piece by piece in a decorative pattern. As a tribute to Mrs. Hamill’s former career as a bridal consultant, one of the sculptures is of a wedding dress.

Mrs. Hamill had the first solo show featured at Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation in November 2006 and has been working on the sculptures for this show ever since.

“After completing the show in November, I wanted to explore more in sculpture,” she said. “My pieces in the last show evolved from two dimensional to three dimensional, this is the next step in that process.”

The shows second artist, Ms Temple, ventured into new realms with a collection of figurative photographs and paintings. She has included three works that are renditions of famous nudes, two by Gustave Klimt and the third by Henri Matisse.

“I began by photographing bodies mimicking the position of the painting,” said Ms Temple. “The image was printed on canvas and then I painted the background from the paintings around the figures. I am hoping that people might like to commission me to paint other portraits featuring their favourite paintings.”

The Brunner side of the show introduces a series of sculptures named ‘Fly’ where she follows her unique style featuring clear shapes and lines. In another piece, ‘Come Down to the Basics’ she went for simplicity and minimalism. Ms Brunner likes to leave something to the imagination in her pieces.

“I feel I achieved my goal when my kids look at my sculptures and make comments like, ‘oh I see a head in here’ or ‘this looks like a sail but it also could be an animal or maybe it is an airplane or—’,” Ms Brunner said.

She said a contrast in her choice of materials is also important to her.

“Using solid materials but having almost delicate and floating looking sculptures connected to a wooden base creates this pleasing contrast,” she said. “It represents our wish to be free and light and at the same time grounded and secure. My inspiration comes naturally through dreams and visions which I follow with great enthusiasm.”

She aimed to stimulate the viewer and take them to different places with her choice of colours and surface finishes.

“I like to see people look at my sculptures, share their thoughts and leave thinking,” she said. “Art for me is about coming from the soul with the hope to touch many peoples’ emotions.”

All three artists have participated in the prestigious Bacardi Biennial at the National Gallery and have exhibited their work at various other galleries Island-wide.

The exhibition will run from April 11 to May 1. The show opens on April 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. Normal gallery hours are from 10.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. or by appointment at 236-5963.