The Czech-born artist Pavel Kraus has made quite a splash
lately, with two New York shows--this engaging sculpture
exhibition in SoHo, titled "Remains of the Present," and a
similarly effective exhibition uptown at the Czech Center--
plus current exhibitions in Prague. In his work, Kraus
combines extremely diverse materials: lead and wax, bronze
and straw, etc. Often, his sculptures look like ancient artifacts
dug up and reassembled incorrectly by erring archaeologists.
Filling one corner of the gallery, a wall of rectangular slabs of
colored beeswax is perpendicular to a wall of rectangular lead
panels. Approaching the corner space, one is enveloped by
both the diffused light and the slightly acrid but intriguing scents
given off by both materials. In another work, called Liquid Sky,
a ton of lead bricks supporting a yellow slab of wax seems
disconcertingly portable as it rests in a four-wheeled cart. In
his work, Kraus transforms the properties of his chosen
materials. As Charlotta Kotik says in her catalog essay for his
Czech shows, the artist "points up the fragility of seemingly
stable elements."
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