In "Beyond Rodin," at the Rye Arts Center, the Human Form Unleashed Bob Clyatt STATEMENT FIGURES A maquette by Joan Benefiel and Jeremy Leichman for the "Hudson River Pilings Project" is among the more than 50 works in "Beyond Rodin: New Directions in Contemporary Figurative Sculpture" at the Rye Arts Center. FOR its current exhibition, the Rye Arts Center is inhabited by sculptural depictions of the human figure. They perch on pedestals and line the walls; a woman on a swing is suspended from the ceiling. Several pieces have been placed outdoors: a nude on the lawn, a huge head among the bushes, brightly hued bodies cavorting on poles. A ceramic baby clings precariously to a second-story window, rolls of fat around his shoulders and knees. The more than 50 works on view in "Beyond Rodin: New Directions in Contemporary Figurative Sculpture" are intended to demonstrate a revitalization of the human form in art. "For decades, the figure was off-limits for serious sculptors," said Bob Clyatt, the creator of the imperiled baby and the curator of the exhibition. There was Rodin, there was Degas, Giacometti and Moore, and then Segal and Hanson got some mileage out of body-casting, but that was about it. Figurative sculpture was considered old-fashioned or kitsch. This has begun to change, said Mr. Clyatt, who is traditionally trained himself and lives in Rye. "In the last 5 to 10 years," he said, "we're seeing sculpture that is classically rooted but undeniably contemporary." The 20 artists in the show, who range in age from 30 to 81, handle the figure in various ways. They carve, cast and hand-model; a few use computer-assisted design. They work in bronze, wood, clay and paper; they make use of found objects and space-age polymers. Some of their sculptures are portraiture; some are narrative; some simply venerate the human body. There is whimsy here, alongside somber messages about decidedly contemporary matters. Susan Saladino's "The Last Bird," for instance, laments humans" ravaging of nature. Its blindfolded woman, with her torso of stoneware and her skirt of twigs, presses a bird to her breast. The figure was inspired by two screaming jays circling a demolished lot near Ms. Saladino's home in Florida. Flailing skeletons, topsy-turvy shopping carts, farm animals and nearly 100 other fanciful characters tumble through "You Wish," Jedediah Morfit's 72-inch-by-44-inch white urethane plastic bas-relief. The piece was inspired, he said, by the chaos that followed last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Mr. Morfit, who is based in Philadelphia, has been working in bas-relief for six years. "I'm thinking of Josiah Wedgwood and 19th-century decorative plaster and cherubim," he said. I like that my work has all those historical resonances, but at the same time tells a 21st-century story. Recurring throughout Mr. Morfit's composition is a bustled woman pushing a wheelbarrow. In one spot, she is an empty shape on the wooden background - the first time Mr. Morfit has incorporated this negative image. It represents, he said, "the desire to absent yourself from the flotsam and jetsam of existence." He added, "But you can't - you're in it and you're not getting out." Though all this may sound gloomy, other works are not. Consider Bret Reilly's "Pink Sneakers," the woman on the suspended swing, all white papier-mâché except for her shoes, a real pair of pink plaid sneakers. Or Joan Benefiel and Jeremy Leichman's resin women, approximately two feet tall and tinted in vibrant shades of red and orange, who balance on poles inside and outside the center, and along Purchase Street in downtown Rye. Ms. Benefiel and Mr. Leichman are a married couple who founded Figuration, L.L.C., a studio in Brooklyn. Their 15 figures in "Beyond Rodin" are maquettes for the "Hudson River Pilings Project," a gathering of larger figures, some 15 feet, to be displayed in the Hudson off Houston Street. In 2009, the project was approved by the Hudson River Park Trust; the couple are raising money for its realization. Their maquettes have also been installed in Manhattan's fashion district and at Nokia Plaza in Los Angeles. Among the sculptures on display are those that pay homage to the nobility of the human form. These include Christopher Smith's "Perfectly Naked," a row of 20-inch male and female nudes, and Bernard Rowan's seven-foot "Tania," the nude on the center's lawn. "This one body in this one time becomes a timeless presence," Mr. Rowan wrote, "unique, irreplaceable, forever, and never to occur again." But with cast works, iterations of the same piece can occur. Over four decades, versions of Carole A. Feuerman's hyper-realistic sculptures have appeared around the globe. Here, gallerygoers can marvel at the degree of detail - strands of hair loosened from bathing caps, drops of water glistening on skin - in two of her swimmers: "Moran," a young woman in a red swimsuit, and "Miniature Serena," another young woman resting on an inner tube. The latter is a scaled-down version of Ms. Feuerman's monumental "Survival of Serena," which had its debut at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and won first prize at the Beijing Biennale in 2008. This summer, an 800-pound painted bronze edition of the work will be on view in Lieutenant Petrosino Square in Lower Manhattan. Ms. Feuerman, who lives and works in Manhattan, says that with each casting she makes subtle alterations: "I change the nose, or the angle of the face." Most of her pieces require more than 100 coats of paint to achieve their realism. But that realism, she added, is an illusion. "I'm actually idealizing the human form," she said. It's not life as it really is. It's more a dreamlike, magical state of how you'd want it to be. "Beyond Rodin: New Directions in Contemporary Figurative Sculpture" runs through June 16 at the Rye Arts Center, 51 Milton Road, and along Purchase Street, in Rye. Admission is free. All works are for sale. For more information: ryeartscenter.org or (914) 967-0700.