Bruce Gagnier

“Clay can be molded to another identity, made into an illusion through light,” says Bruce Gagnier of his sculptural medium of choice. “The figure has a history of being a form of content, a container for a subject.” In disquieting small-scale sculptures, Gagnier consistently returns to the human figure as central subject, molded first in clay and then cast in hydrocal or stoneware. His work relates to a larger history of figural sculpture by borrowing poses from Classical Greek and Roman sculpture, but presents these ironically on bulbous, mis-proportioned, and off-balance bodies. Gagnier’s exploration of the grotesque human body through breaking down and exaggerating its forms is inspired by Cubism and other forms of early modernist abstraction.