Othello (b.1991, Miami, USA) is best known for a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses sculpture, painting and drawing. Working across a range of mediums— including glazed ceramic, carved wood, bronze, ink and oil paint— Othello transforms everyday objects into anthropomorphic, animistic vessels. His colourful, assembled sculptures appear as animated, sentient objects, while his lush painted landscapes teem with life.
In his debut exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, Othello creates an immersive installation that expands upon earlier motifs and represents a bold evolution in his artistic cosmology. Inspired by the domestic objects, flora and fauna of his immediate surroundings, he recasts them as humanoid characters whose features are as recognisable as they are uncanny. Vessels sprout appendages such as ears and mouths, while exaggerated hands shield invisible eyes. They stand alone or huddled in groups, precariously stacked atop an array of entangled legs that bend, kneel, twist and fold. Occasionally a household curio appears: a hollowed-out mirror revealing the silhouette of a face, a hammer melting over a platinum-glazed steam iron, or a pair of chess pieces inflated to the size of a cat.
