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Monday, July 23, 2012

Thomas Houseago


Thomas Houseago’s figurative sculptures appear physically imposing and powerful in their size and positioning yet fragmented and vulnerable in their construction. To build these works, Houseago begins with a structure of iron rods and then adds a variety of traditional sculptural materials such as plaster, hemp, and wood. Some of his works incorporate graphite or charcoal sketches of faces and anatomy on plaster and wood panels.

Monstrous yet unthreatening, this work— a part-human, part-animal being—is in a transitional pose between walking and crawling, weighted on the flat expanses of its plaster hands and feet. Houseago’s combination of sculpting and drawing challenges conventional aesthetic boundaries between three-dimensionality and flatness, monumentality and spontaneity. (from the 2010 Whitney Biennial website)

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