Huma Bhabha Sculptures

Salon 94 Bowery is pleased to present an exhibition of new sculptures by Huma Bhabha. Assembled from packed Styrofoam, cork, wire, wood, metal scraps, bone, branches and air-dried clay, Bhabha’s six new sculptures rise from the wooden plinth. The bases, some expressively painted and others marked with traces of black spray paint, are no longer merely foundations for the sculptures but serve as stage, landscape, and body.

Tupac Amaru is a large standing figure, its multi-faceted surfaces revealing several faces and miss-matched body parts. It stands rooted to its base, a painted scrap of particle-board over a wooden plinth, and recalls her totemic figures referencing both ancient sculpture and futuristic cyborgs.

In H.Q., the artist has created a hybrid form, somewhere between contemporary architecture and archaic figurative sculpture. Styrofoam and plastic cubes teeter upon a plinth, resembling a Post-modern skyscraper. An arm of chicken wire and clay cuts the geometric rigidity, shifting it’s scale. Another sculpture presents a distressed Styrofoam tower on an overturned base, its hollow interior revealing a hidden painting and object.

Huma Bhabha lives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York. Her work was recently featured in the 2010 Whitney Biennial; the 14th International Sculpture Biennial in Carrara, Italy; The Gwangju Biennial in Korea and in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, NY and the New Museum, NY.

Accompanying this exhibition is a new monograph on Huma Bhabha published by Salon 94 and Peter Blum Edition. The artist’s hand-colored photographs can be viewed at Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea.