(South Africa, 1953- )
Lives and works in Toronto, Canada
Working in molded and dye-painted
silicone, implanting real hair one strand at a time, Evan Penny makes
figures (most often head-and-shoulders busts) at twice life size
or larger. Oddly, the closer one gets to this work, the closer one
looks at the details of Penny's work, the more real it appears. Penny
constructs molds for the silicone by modeling clay by hand, a technique
he also uses as an artist who makes props for movies. This work,
a self portrait, shares with other work by Penny a sensibility that
goes beyond just technological virtuosity. Through the painstaking
creation of scars, blemishes and other imperfections of the body,
Penny investigates human corporeality and fallibility. |
