GEDI SIBONY, sculpture
With his sensitive handling of hollow-core doors and commercial carpet, Gedi Sibony is one of several young Biennial artists doing exciting things with sculpture. “I have a family history with these materials; my father was a contractor,” says the 32-year-old New Yorker. His playful transformations of crude elements—like foam insulation surrounded by silver-painted twigs—have led critics to compare him to Richard Tuttle, though he’s also inspired by Bruce Nauman’s early sculptures and Rauschenberg’s Combines. In 2004, Sibony made his solo debut at the Lower East Side gallery Canada; since then, he’s made ArtReview’s list of top emerging artists and turned up in group shows all over town. “He has an eloquence in his economy of means that is really exceptional, especially in New York, where there is a lot more bombastic work,” says SculptureCenter curator Anthony Huberman.