Daniel Silver (B. 1972)

The British-Israeli artist Daniel Silver’s totemic sculpture Untitled stands as if inviting its beholder to commune. Its pearlescent, humanoid head is crafted from sardonyx, a gemstone whose mystical associations include eloquence. It emerges from a base in black steel, whose geometric, crystal-like form resembles a section of the great Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s monumental 1935 masterpiece Endless Column. A striped fabric poncho, redolent of those worn by Peru’s Quechua people, completes the sculpture, furthering the impression of a living being. By drawing these three elements together, Silver jovially subverts the history of human representation, playing on his audience’s familiarity with the standing body to create a figure of enigmatic impact. In 2010, several of Silver’s works were included in the Saatchi Gallery exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now, which also appeared at St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum. Later acclaimed for his 2013 Artangel installation Dig, he is presently the subject of a survey at the New Art Gallery, Walsall.