UNTITLED (GRADIENT TOTEM)

Saul Chernick’s abstract sculptures harness both the ancient and the futuristic to create a disorienting power over the viewer. Play is at the center of his sculptural practice, hoping to better people’s lives by inspiring curiosity, visually harnessing ceremony and spirituality, and appealing to the sensibilities of children. Chernick advocates for the importance of exploration and learning through play, which in childhood are one and the same: a mode of communication, a medium for social connection, a means to explore, release, and envision possibilities that, while out-of-this-world, can improve quality of life on this planet. His sculptures appear to be from an alien environment, taking on forms straight out of a Dr. Seuss book, which, while colored wildly, are not actually painted: the artist has infused color into his home-made medium that gives it an ancient baked-stone texture. This is applied by hand, accomplishing the smooth gradients much like mixing pigment- ed mud, a much more laborious process than any process of painting.