Wilfrid Wood, the East London-based sculptor, crafts absorbing, occasionally hilarious faces and figures from paper mache, plasticine, and polymer clay. Whether it’s Mark Zuckerberg, 2016 Olympians, or less public figures, there’s both humanity and vulnerability in Wood’s work. Since the end of the satirical television show "Spitting Image," on which Wood worked to help craft the heads in the puppet program, the artist has worked as a freelance sculptor.
Jess Riva Cooper explores themes of reclamation and transformation in her ceramic sculptures where nature overwhelms and takes over her subjects. Particularly inspired by invasive plant species, the Toronto based artist, featured here on our blog, uses clay to express her fascination with chaos erupting into order.
Though the clay works of Ronit Baranga, featured here on our blog, have been described as chill-inducing, frightening, and even repulsive, the Israeli artist doesn't see her work this way. Her sculptures animate every day objects such as dishes, tea cups, and saucers, offering them the ability to express the full spectrum of human emotions. Even her humanoid figures sprout new body parts as if their skin has a mind of its own.
Oakland, California based artist Crystal Morey feels a special connection to nature that stems from her childhood years spent in the Sierra Nevada foothills. When she moved to the city, her entire perspective changed. "I once saw humans as being under the umbrella of “nature,” subservient to natural happening. I now realize humans are the largest variable in the changing of our planet’s ecological and environmental outcome," she says. This is the driving motivation behind her sculptures of totem-like creatures inspired by various cultures; human characters wrapped in the skins of eagles, bears, deer, rabbits and other animals.