Whimsy, humor and fantasy collide in the sculpture of Beijing artist Wang Ruilin. Some pieces are realistic reproductions of animals’ bodies while others manipulate these bodies to create an unexpected effects. His “Horse Play” series feel especially humorous. The horses have expressive eyes and tuck in their necks almost petulantly. In one piece, horses pile on top of each other into a pyramid; at the top a horse stands with his head cocked to one side. Wang highlights each flesh fold on these horses, making their sculptural bodies seem lively.
Wang’s “Dreams” series depicts other animal bodies, some with natural environments atop their backs or torsos. There is a decidedly surreal twist to these pieces. In one, mountains sit atop fluffy clouds perched on deer antlers. The deer’s heads gracefully touch to create this mysterious landscape. In another piece, a whale’s back holds what looks like a small ocean. Small pieces of a glacier float in its blue water, alluding to the changes the Earth is currently experiencing as climate change takes its course. These animals share something in common: they seem to harbor secrets we can’t quite unlock.
Kim Yun Soo is a Korean multi media artist whose work spans from mixed media sculpture and installations to photography, but perhaps her most compelling work is an ongoing series of PVC footprints, dramatically transformed into surreal mountainscapes. Since 1999, Soo has been collecting the fingerprints and footprints of her close friends and acquaintances, recording their unique shapes and spirals and giving them a new dimension inspired by the natural world. Many of her works resemble a wave, where a single footprint ripples out into stacked shapes and contours, forming a sort of topographical map of their owner that she arranges in simple displays.
Ron Mueck The exhibition “Reshaped Reality: 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture” has currently taken over at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan, with the likes of Patricia Piccinini, Ron Mueck, and several others. The survey of hyperrealistic figurative work features both larger-than-life and distorted takes on the human form. The exhibition runs through Sept. 22 at the space.
Oakland based artist 