No One Has a Monopoly Over Sorrow, 2005. Male ring finger bones coated in melted bullet lead, wedding bands excavated from battlefields, and mixed media, 10 x 8 x 11 in. Photo: courtesy the artist and D’amelio Terras, NY.

Dario Robleto: The Phantasm of Matter

In Dario Robleto’s world, nothing is at it seems: bone is vinyl, hair is magnetic tape, flowers are paper, skeletons are filled with a marrow of Sylvia Plath reciting her poetry. His touch is so deft, so light, that many casual viewers mistake the sculptures for found-object collage. It is easy to miss the subtle incongruities of material science and alchemy, to dismiss the work as three-dimensional nostalgic snapshots, but such an approach fails to understand the deep meaning in the reconfigured materials.