Tara Donovan’s sculptures look like they may have been built by an insect colony with a hive mind. One can imagine thousands of tiny creatures each carrying index cards or acrylic threads, dropping them to form a sculpture growing from a gallery floor. That is to say, Donovan’s work process is highly repetitious, stacking, gluing and sculpting mundane materials until they begin to take on new, organic forms. Several of the artist’s latest large-scale sculptures are currently on display in a dual exhibition at Pace Gallery’s Menlo Park, CA and New York City art spaces.
At the New York location, a fluffy-looking sculpture made of rabbit tail-like balls of acrylic dominates the space, neighboring stalagmite-like piles of neatly shaped index cards. The Menlo Park exhibition, which serves more as a retrospective, has an equally large sculpture: a molecule-like formation of black spheres that seem to have a luminosity despite being monochromatic. The piece is accompanied by smaller works, such as a flat, puddle-like sculpture made from pencils cut to different heights. Tara Donovan’s exhibition at Pace Gallery in Menlo Park is on view through June 30 and her New York show runs through August 15. Take a look at some of the sculptures below.
Untitled, 2014. 10′ 1/2″ x 14′ 2″ x 12′ 10-3/4″. New York City.
Untitled, 2014. Styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue, 12′ 5-1/2″ x 22′ 4″ x 22′ 11-1/2″ at Pace Gallery NYC.
Untitled at Pace Gallery NYC.
Installation view at Menlo Park.
Installation view at Menlo Park.
Artist 
Massachusetts based sculptor Tom Friedman’s work is instantly recognizable for its surprising use of materials like styrofoam, foil, paper, clay, wire, plastic, hair, and fuzz. "I don’t think about the construction of meaning. I think about the creating a catalyst for thinking. Meaning is too concrete. I want the viewer to think in different ways. I want to propose an ongoing process of investigation with no conclusions," says Friedman. The artist's great emphasis on materials makes him an analog artist in a digital world, and people looking at his work often remark on it's "zen-like" quality.
