Stuart Kusher, Brooklyn born artist presently working in Los Angeles is a self taught sculptor, pushes the traditional bronze into innovative and fresh territory wherein classical Renaissance style meets the 21st century. With the heart to conceive and the hand to execute, Kusher takes influence from Nicola Pisano, yet bearing an absence of the ecclesiastical and the imitation of real people. His heart is as much a tool as his hands – creating without the use of models or photographs. Each work is essentially a surreal extension of the artist’s heart, executed with delft precision.

The Messenger (female figure) is captured in an early moment of flight, rising in a sweeping and powerful ascension. With her neck craned toward the heavens and feet positioned vertically, she rises from the ashes amidst the 10 bronze skulls (catacombs of the mind*) and 5 candles (the pillars of humanity*) that lie underfoot; the bronze fully absent of color, a white patina her chosen skin. *as referenced by the artist

Clad in a simple, non-descript fabric, no indication of specific period or history is ever referenced; the swell of fabric billowed by her swift ascent. And Kusher’s delicate cantilever is no less visually stunning than it is a remarkable feat of engineering.

The Messenger is both literal and conceptual in its reflective natures. Rife with semantic relation and symbol, she embodies our world state; projecting a sense of spiritual rebirth, while simultaneously drawing upon the artist’s own confrontation with mortality. The viewer’s imagination is set in motion, presented with an opportunity to experience his or her own unique contemplative reflection as foretold by The Messenger.

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Stuart Kusher's New Old Gods

Shana Nys Dambrot, Art Critic, Curator, essayist based in LA

A lifelong artist by temperament and activity, for Kusher this storytelling impulse has generated an impressively eclectic array of manifestations over the years. Click here to read article.