A mile or more of hand-dyed, waxed thread, perhaps an acre of silkscreened, printed, and dyed silk organza and other fabrics, hundreds of bells, rusted razor blades, brain scans on magnetized rubber disks, small round candle mirrors, miniature Buddhas, the Heart Sutra, and a myriad of other symbolic objects mark the artistic journey traveled by
Claire Lieberman: Material Sensitivities
Claire Lieberman is a sculptor with a clear sensitivity for materials. Incredibly agile, she demonstrates a comfort with everything from alabaster, marble, and glass to cast rubber and resin, to ice and molded Jell-O. She has even experimented with photography and video, though always with her sculptures as the subject of the work.
Irresistible Illusions and Other Worlds
At least since the Renaissance, when artists developed sophisticated perspectival and trompe l’oeil effects to produce convincing representations of the real world or of imaginary scenes, illusionism has been a large part of the story and substance of Western visual art.
Material Dreaming: Photography and Sculpture
In 2004, Xing Danwen began an ongoing series of color photographs titled Urban Fiction. Using showroom models of large apartment complexes created by real estate developers in Beijing as her primary subjects, she digitally inserts a few small figures (often including her own) into windows or onto terraces, roofs, or surrounding sidewalks.
David Smith: Moments of Invention and Experimentation
The work of David Smith is a monolith in the history of modern American art. And like all monolithic structures, it is surrounded by a simplified, essentialized, almost mythological narrative. Now, 35 years after his death, two exhibitions have begun to explore his prodigious output in a much more comprehensive manner.
Defining Nature by Defying Materials: A Conversation with Bryan Hunt
Bryan Hunt is in the catbird seat. He has surveyed four decades of contemporary art, including Minimalism, Process Art, Earthwork, conceptualism, performance, installation, political art, and realism, but rarely has he incorporated these styles into his sculpture, which has embraced materiality, abstraction, and nature.
Al Farrow’s Modern-Day Reliquaries
To say that Al Farrow’s work achieves strong visual effect grossly understates the success of his recent “Twentieth Century Reliquaries” series. Consider the most important piece—The Spine and Tooth of Santo Guerro, an enormous sculpture that at first glance appears to replicate the form of a Gothic cathedral.
Michelangelo Pistoletto: Against Imperatives
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s work has undergone a number of profound transformations over the last 55 years, none more dramatic than those that occurred during a few incendiary years in the mid-1960s. Works from this period provide the core of “Michelangelo Pistoletto: From One to Many, 1956–1974,” which debuted at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is
Los Angeles: Great Expectations in Sculpture
Los Angeles is a city for first impressions. It’s a shallow mantra, but one that serves L.A. well, allowing it to be bombastic and superficial without shame. Subtlety may not be its strongest quality, but obviousness suits this city built on glaring sunshine, sprawling wealth, and artificially just fine.
Celebrating Aberrations: A Conversation with Edgar Arceneaux
Edgar Arceneaux’s concerns link studio practice and work in public space. He uses the persona of the artist, an identity that transcends race or agency, as “a transfigurative subject” within his work. His desire to monitor how his work is received becomes complicit with his idea of what it means to present himself as an
