Rebecca Warren positions herself within the lineage of a sculptural tradition. She re-works and intentionally misappropriates existing images by the accepted masters of figurative sculpture, including Degas, Picasso and Rodin, as well as drawing on more contemporary artists such as R. Crumb and Helmut Newton. She pays homage to her heroes while gently questioning their authority.
Warren’s unfired clay sculptures appear to explode out of and merge back into the amorphous properties of the material, projecting a sense of unleashed creativity. In contrast, her wall-based vitrines, containing various detritus collected in and around the studio, have none of the clay works’ rough-hewn vitality.
Each object is carefully assembled to draw out its particular emotional and associative resonances, elevating discarded leftovers to the status of art object while flouting conventional hierarchies of display.
