Hebru Brantley Gaia

Hebru Brantley is a contemporary painter and sculptor whose work touches on onerous subjects in a manner that is playful to the viewer — he tells his stories through youthful characters and their adventures in a comic-book style.

Inspired by his childhood as an African American in 1980s Chicago, Brantley’s prints, scultpures and other work can be described as an infusion of contemporary Pop art with Japanese anime and the bold aesthetics of street art pioneers Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kaws and Keith Haring. While spray paint is often at the forefront of his mixed-media illustrations, Brantley utilizes a plethora of mediums from oil, acrylic and watercolor to non-traditional mediums like coffee and tea.

Describing himself as an Afro-futurist, Brantley’s energetic narratives combine realistic events with imaginative, fantastical fiction to create fragmented compositions that evoke sentimental nostalgia and inspire confidence.

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Figurative sculptures mix reality and imagination, with the most common muse being the human body. Animals are also inspirations for these sculptures, along with forms found in nature.

While figurative sculpture dates back over 35,000 years, the term came into popularity in the 20th century to distinguish it from abstract art. It was aligned with the Expressionist movement in that many of its artists portrayed reality but in a nonnaturalistic and emotional way. In the 1940s, Alberto Giacometti — a Swiss-born artist who was interested in African art, Cubism and Surrealism — created now-iconic representational sculptures of the human figure, and after World War II, figurative sculpture as a movement continued to flourish in Europe.

Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon were some of the leading figurative artists during this period. Artists like Jeff Koons and Maurizio Cattelan propelled the evolution of figurative sculpture into the 21st century.

Figurative sculptures can be whimsical, uncanny and beautiful. Their materials range from stone and wood to metal and delicate ceramics. Even in smaller sizes, the sculptures make bold statements. A bronze sculpture by Salvador Dalí enhances a room; a statuesque bull by Jacques Owczarek depicts strength with its broad chest while its thin legs speak of fragility. Figurative sculptures allow viewers to see what is possible when life is reimagined.

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