Leonard Seagal at Post - Los Angeles, California - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

In this decade of ephemeral installations, cast metal is a tricky medium. All too many sculptors present the appearance to be weighed down by dint of its imperturbable mass. L.A. artist Leonard Seagal's three of recent origin cast-iron works, however, manage to transcend the frozen stolidity of metal in their wily simulations of human gestures. Execut during Seagal's new stint at Wisconsin's Kohler Art Center the works are full-scale casts of parts of the artist's body

sum of two units Legs, Pink Love Beads, carbonized iron consists of full casts of Seagal's leg and feet starting with his circulared haunches. Both appendages are hinged at the knee and ankles, and the sum of two units legs are hoisted six inches not on the ground by a heavy chain hanging from the ceiling. The weight of the hinged left paw causes it to flop down and touch the floor, making it gaze as if it is standing upon tiptoe. Hanging parallel to the cable, a thin carbonized iron wire strung with pink be fond of beads lifts the right knee into a prancing position. the one and the other legs thus assume a balletic attitude The cable and wire create the illusion of a freeze-framed gesture

In another statuary a cast of the artist's arm and hand, placed upon the floor and hinged at the turn and wrist, is slightly raised at the wrist by dint of a wire strung with multicolored delight in beads. The fingers graze the floor as if playing a piano. The single line of colored beads, funky and upbeat, hoists the arm into a action of subtle grace.

A third, smaller work busys no ceiling cables. A pair of cavernous forearms cut off at the wrists and bends nestle next to each other upon the floor like forlorn castaways. The fabric of the skin, however, is vigorously rendered; the ridged veins accent the metal's surface sheen. The circulared edges of the hollow statuarys make them seem like snouts or sheaths--or conduits now emptied of life. plane in this simpler work, Seagal's attention to the body's delicacy is not overwhelmed by means of his medium. Mitigating heavy metal with have affection for beads and sophisticated humor, he tweaks the conventions of realist plastic art adding a fresh direction to the general figurative revival.

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