When South African-born sculptor Kathy Venter saw the ancient Terracotta Army of Xian, China, her thoughts were not of Emporer Qin, who commissioned the life-sized figures of warriors and their horses so that he might have protection in the afterlife, but of the soldiers themselves. Buried with the emperor in 210 BC, the eight thousand effigies (each unique in detail) were unearthed by Chinese farmers in 1974. And though they were tarnished and moldering from their long slumber, the large sculptures were still remarkably intact.

Inspired by the army’s decaying beauty, Venter began developing her own technique for producing life-size human figures and, in the process, exploring the balance among creation, existence, and decay as it relates to the earthly self.

Her latest show, One, which opened at Sculpturesite Gallery in San Francisco on September 27, features four full-sized terracotta and hydro-stone figures as well as three torsos. Modeled after the visage of a single female subject — a woman central to the artist’s life in the small community in Canada where she now resides — the figures are lustrous and intense as they emerge from the secondary outer layers, which Venter applies to the primary form, then removes with a sandblaster. The results are so remarkable that one might be tempted to assume the sculptures are embellished life castings. But Venter’s technique — a combination of coil and extended pinch methods that creates a bonded framework for the pieces — is actually much more labor-intensive. She painstakingly crafts the figures straight from the raw materials, firing them in only three or four sections.

“I only have basic knowledge of anatomy,” Venter told Ceramics Monthly magazine last December. “The whole person interests me, not only blood and bone, but the inner thought expressed in an infinite variety of subtle outer gestures or attitudes.”

The One show will be on display through November 24. Also be sure to visit Sculpturesite Gallery online to learn more about Venter’s unique work.

Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.