Katharina Fritsch’s extensive sculptural practice transforms familiar subjects through striking shifts of scale, color, and symbolic detail. Fritsch confronts social consciousness from a visual, often iconographic perspective. Her installation-based works reference the ways in which fantasies, fables, and fairy tales impact our cultural understanding. The artist’s sculptures are often described as “uncanny,” an effect due in part to the hyper-saturated finish the artist achieves by repeated layering of monochromatic paint, a process by which the surfaces of sculptures become completely unreflective. These figures subvert the traditional role of statues—hers are not celebratory and do not recall a moment of heroism or historical significance. Rather, they emphasize the inimitable and enigmatic, presenting viewers with symbols and associations to be contemplated rather than understood.

–From the Glenstone Field Guide