Latitude 40N: Mariana Sammartino’s Most Iconic Piece

Architecturally structured folded metal recreates the peaks and the valleys of a landscape that both reflects and refracts light. A meticulous combination of industrial materials (stainless steel mesh) and precious metals (18K yellow gold and sterling silver) create an engaging multi-sensory challenge: as light hits the piece, the stainless steel peaks and valleys are washed with golden tone reflections. It was not until after the piece was complete that the artist noticed the dynamic effect of the gold “rays” when the piece moves!

40 Degrees North is the artist’s multi-faceted open invitation to the viewer and the wearer to explore a series of dialectic relationships between light and shadow, surface and depth, rectilinear and curvilinear, static and dynamic, intellect and intuition, discipline and freedom, roughness and softness, warmth and coldness, calm and tension, strength and vulnerability.

Anna Tahinci, PhD
Professor and Head of Art History
The Glassell School of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston