Richard Van Buren: New Sculpture Reviewed in Modern Painters

Who knew seashells and thermoplastic could combine to such effect? Van Buren is a peer and a friend of Lynda Benglis’s, and both artists share an affection for molten forms. A cursory glance at this work can be confusing—the gaudy colors, the seemingly decorative shapes, those shells—and it’s certainly an acquired taste. But spend some time with these weird, sprawling wall pieces—and the monster of a sculpture, Walking with Garth, 2011, that lies in the middle of the gallery floor—and you might find a sharper edge to what, at first, appears lighthearted and ornamental.

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