El Anatsui, Black River, 2009

Anatsui assembles discarded liquor bottle caps into intricately woven sculptures of gold, black, and red that he thinks of as “cloths.” Their dazzling colors and patterns recall traditional African weaving, especially kente cloth from his homeland of Ghana. (2010.586)

Lynda Benglis, Wing, 1970

Benglis poured liquid plastic that hardened into "frozen gestures" she then cast in metal. Titled “Wing” for the outstretched wall structure on which it was poured, this dramatic aluminum cascade hovers from the wall as part painting, part sculpture. (2011.1)

Mark Bradford, Backward C, 2005

Bradford uses hair perming papers from his mother's salon and posters gathered in his South Central Los Angeles neighborhood in collaged abstract paintings, reflecting the gritty economies, realities, and rhythms of his urban experience. (2009.345)

Michael Eden, Blue Bloom, 2011

Eden reinvents classic decorative forms with 21st-century production methods. Quoting Wedgewood ceramics, Eden drew a three-dimensional computer model and printed it using lasers and nylon to build "Blue Bloom" one ultrathin layer at a time. (2011.212)

Mona Hatoum, Grater Divide, 2002

Hatoum transforms domestic objects into disquieting sculptures. "Grater Divide"—an oversized kitchen utensil meant to cut and slice—has a profound physical presence on a scale that literally hides or divides individuals. (2002.320)

Eva Hild, Sinuous, 2010

Hild coils clay by hand, using the oldest pottery-making method in the world, smoothing the coils into a sinuous surface of voids rather than a vessel. Over many months of sanding, the sculpture’s shape emerges, and Hild then fires it and paints it white. (2011.2)

Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Green Yellow Orange Red (Blue panel), 1968

Since the 1950s, Kelly has pioneered works that draw an attention to edge, shape, and color. He recognizes his paintings as three-dimensional forms on a larger wall, and the surrounding architecture becomes part of the experience. (2011.93.1)

Josiah McElheny, Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism, 2007

McElheny's art tempts us with seductive form to become curious about the artist’s ideas. For "Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism," the artist hand-blows glass and mirrors to reflect on ideas about 20th-century design. (2007.600)

Doris Salcedo, Untitled, 1989

Salcedo transforms ordinary furniture into intimate symbols of loss. Here, a battered crib enclosed in a mesh of wire, wax, and fabric, suggests not security, but the imprisonment of a casket. (1992.205)

Carlson/Strom, Sloss, Kerr, Rosenberg, & Moore, 2007

Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom combine their experience in dance, video art, and public and conceptual art to create their work. Their video captures the choreography of urban masculinity through the lens of a lawyer’s day. (2008.119)

Kara Walker, The Rich Soil Down There, (2002)

Walker creates large-scale scenes inspired by the antebellum South by cutting silhouettes from black paper. She uses this old-fashioned art form to explore racial and gender dynamics; the closer you look, the more disturbing her images are. (2005.339)

Rachel Whiteread, Double-Doors II, A+B, 2006–07

Whiteread makes casts of everyday objects to show us what is invisible. She made casts of the area under a chair, for example, to reveal its negative space. Here, if you look closely, you can see these doors are inside out. (2008.643.1–2)

Explore in Depth

Explore these works in depth in our interactive magazine for the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art.