Los Angeles
Matthew Marks Gallery
Figurative sculpture has been a mainstay of Charles Ray’s work since his early days as an artist, when he pinned his elevated body against the wall with a board (Plank Piece I and II, 1973) and arranged himself naked on metal shelves, merging the hard forms and surfaces of Minimalism with their antithesis, flesh. Since then, the figurative line of his work has shifted to life-like fiberglass sculptures such as Oh Charley, Charley, Charley (1992), the group orgy scene starring eight copies of himself, and to painted metal works like the white steel Boy With Frog (2009), permanently installed on Venice’s Grand Canal. Ray’s first solo show in L.A. since his 2007 exhibition of Hinoki, a reconstructed fallen tree, contains two figures: Young Man and Sleeping Woman (both 2012) in solid stainless steel, polished to a soft sheen. …see the entire review in the print version of May’s Sculpture magazine.
