lya Prigogine, 2011-2014, bronze, 13.75 x 29 x 16.375 inches
Melancholia Enshrines All Triumph, 2011-2014, bronze, 9.75 x 30.625 x 17.75 inches
J.G. Ballard, 2006-2013, bronze, 9.75 x 27 x 18 inches
Lisa Randall, 2009-2013, bronze, 10.75 x 38.25 x 15.75 inches
Eschatologist, 2013-2014, bronze 22.25, x 22.875 x 23.375 inches
James Siena’s large bronze exoskeletal sculptures are mesmerizing not only because of their algorithmic complexity but also because of their fluid amalgamation of organic and manufactured lines. Siena’s originals, often constructed with bamboo skewers and string, were 3D scanned and later cast in bronze at the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington. The expanded patinated iterations mirror the details of the original sculptures, including the texture of the wood’s surface.
“Line is central to everything that James Siena makes, from drawings and paintings to structural sculptures made of toothpicks and bamboo skewers. His lines—which run the gamut from pure form and geometric abstraction… consist of repetition, increment, and pattern,” (John Yau, Hyperallergic, 2019).
Siena’s work is held in numerous prestigious public and private collections across the U.S., including the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, among others. He is a recipient of a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and is represented by Pace Gallery, New York.