Alex Roskin, Blackened Biche Bench, USA, 2022

The Biche Bench‘s muscular sculpted shape is cast in blackened steel. Upholstered in black eel skin, the bench’s seat is contoured to contrast the belly of the bench.

Roskin’s works blend functional design with modernist sculptural references. A natural successor of innovative artists such as Richard Serra, Jean Arp, and Constantin Brancusi, Roskin’s cast bronze, stainless steel, and carved wood works reflects the artist’s modernist and primitive influences. Beginning with a series of quick sketches, Roskin captures the movement of a basic form. By sculpting in foam and wood Roskin translates that movement into a structural model that is then 3D scanned so that it can then be cast in bronze, aluminum or steel, and finished with carved wood elements. His works often feature a mammalian physicality with heaving sinuous forms and legs that extend from the body in a bowed fashion.

Rejecting outright anthropomorphic mimicry in favor of subtle, sculpted muscular forms, Roskin notes: “I try with each piece to create a stance and a presence, some with more contrapposto. I aim to give each piece a feeling it is inhaling or ready to make a move. I try to steer clear of the decorative, but rather to draw on mass, volume, line, negative space, and my love of materials and the craft of working with them.”

Blackened steel
20h x 63w x 22.50d in
50.80h x 160.02w x 57.15d cm
Upholstery COM / COL