A dual-portrait, realized at 100% scale, in the rare, uniquely un-figured black marble known as ‘Belge Noir’, exhibiting a layered ‘sfumato’ surface suffused with miniscule opposed-diagonal fluting overlaying a coincident enveloping foliate relief. In culmination, a glistening “Rorschach” garland - symmetrically splashed, sharply- delineated, avian, sinister - traverses the work’s midline. The artist-designed integral / modular base / pedestal unit, its tapering parabolic sweep flowing into the sculpture’s glass-polished flute stem (which, in turn, terminates in a silhouetted arboreal fringe), conceived in parallel with the sculpture, precisely-fabricated in stainless steel, acrylic- spray-lacquered aluminum and wood (and a variety of subsidiary materials) by a studio- coordinated consortium of disparate fabricators, is reminiscent, alternately, at its apex, of traditional ‘socles’ and Saarinen furniture pedestals. Here, in an attempt to reinvent and reinvigorate the sub-genre of romantic portrait sculpture, the artist has conjoined his signature fever-pitch execution intensity and a newfound conceptual tenderness. The resultant bilateral Janusian abstraction, created with deep reverence for and specific focus on the history of sculpture, makes an expansive case for the critical reconsideration of prevailing contemporary practice, while simultaneously probing both the subject’s psychology and her complex relationship to the artist. The stony double- surrogate captures, in soft Galatean contravention of its obdurate materiality, a moment of poignant reflection, reflected.

2007 - 2010

Belgian Black Marble, aluminum, stainless steel, wood, acrylic lacquer, steel, nylon, plastic

sculpture / base / pedestal ensemble: 68-1/2 x 11 x 11 in (174.0 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm)

sculpture: 15-3/4 x 8-7/8 x 8-5/16 in (40.0 x 22.5 x 21.1 cm)