January 1986. Painted steel. Dimensions: 63 × 33 × 12 in (160 × 84 × 30 cm). Private Collection.
Gallo takes its title from the Spanish word for rooster, a reference suggested by the stylized, comb-like form at the top of the sculpture. Its heavily textured, almost impasto-like surface gives the steel a painterly quality, while the upright posture and sweeping circular element reinforce the proud, strutting character of a rooster. The reference remains suggestive rather than literal, allowing the sculpture to move between abstraction and recognizable imagery.
Created in 1986, Gallo also reflects my growing interest in color and expressive surface—an interest stimulated in part by my increasing involvement with drawing, particularly color pastels. Paint and richly worked surfaces began to introduce a more gestural, painterly vocabulary into my sculpture, marking a departure from the spare, “truth to materials” approach that characterized my earlier tensegrity, or Brute Series. Rather than allowing stone and steel to speak primarily through their inherent physical properties, I was beginning to use color, texture, and surface as active expressive elements, expanding the emotional and visual range of the work.
January 1986. Painted steel. Dimensions: 63 × 33 × 12 in (160 × 84 × 30 cm). Private Collection.
Gallo takes its title from the Spanish word for rooster, a reference suggested by the stylized, comb-like form at the top of the sculpture. Its heavily textured, almost impasto-like surface gives the steel a painterly quality, while the upright posture and sweeping circular element reinforce the proud, strutting character of a rooster. The reference remains suggestive rather than literal, allowing the sculpture to move between abstraction and recognizable imagery.
Created in 1986, Gallo also reflects my growing interest in color and expressive surface—an interest stimulated in part by my increasing involvement with drawing, particularly color pastels. Paint and richly worked surfaces began to introduce a more gestural, painterly vocabulary into my sculpture, marking a departure from the spare, “truth to materials” approach that characterized my earlier tensegrity, or Brute Series. Rather than allowing stone and steel to speak primarily through their inherent physical properties, I was beginning to use color, texture, and surface as active expressive elements, expanding the emotional and visual range of the work.
