Rob Wynne: Obstacle Illusion

A half-century of the acclaimed sculptor's materially seductive explorations of language and history

For nearly five decades, New York-based artist Rob Wynne (born 1948) has incorporated fragments of language drawn from conversation, literature and popular culture to create visually and materially seductive works that employ text as object or image. Across sculpture, installation, collage and relief, Wynne's work appropriates words and images from a broad array of historical figures and personal remembrances. Embroidered photographs of 18th-century Meissen figurines are overlaid with incongruous words; fragments of phrases are spelled out in syrupy hand-poured letters of mirrored glass. Featuring new texts by noted American novelist A.M. Homes and independent curator Michael Duncan alongside an interview with NYC living treasure Linda Yablonsky, this fully illustrated monograph is the first comprehensive publication on the artist's work, spanning the 1970s to the current day and tracking his development from early paintings and collages to a recent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.