Retha Walden Gambaro's Sculpture

Retha Walden Gambaro is an American artist of Creek Indian descent who came to sculpture as a second career. She and her husband ran an art gallery in Washington DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and Gambaro took to sculpting in stone at the age of 52, after years of representing Native American artists. Gambaro’s sculptures are inspired by her roots in the southwestern states of Oklahoma and Arizona; they exert a powerful blend of mass and subtle grace. A 2012 retrospective at the Heard Museum in Phoenix titled “Attitudes of Prayer” celebrated the artist’s figurative work, executed in stone and bronze.

In 2011, we were contacted by a private collector of Gambaro’s work who needed a conservation firm with a diverse array of capabilities to help care for a number of Gambaro’s works in his possession.

To date, our staff has conserved three of Gambaro’s statues, two in limestone and another in alabaster. The work included repair, mounting, and working with the artist herself to conserve a piece that needed resurfacing and localized repairs.