The India‐based artist A. Balasubramaniam, 32, already has an impressive résumé of international appearances, primarily as a printmaker. Several relief monoprints — including one made from alphabet soup — are in his first New York solo show, but the main work is figurative sculpture, all of it cast in fiberglass from the artistʹs body and painted plaster white.
Two hands fold around a protruding corner near the front of the gallery; nearby, arms reach out from the wall with a beseeching gesture; a pair of seated legs wearing rumpled trousers emerge through the wall into the room. On the other side of the same wall, in a smaller gallery, the rest of the figure appears. Just as the artist molds paper around three‐dimensional forms to create impressions in his prints, so he treats the gallery architecture as a ductile medium, creating the illusion that its surfaces are as loose and pliable as skin or cloth.
It is possible to cite American influences on the sculpture, including the work of George Segal and Robert Gober, though overall the work owes more to the abstract forms and metaphysical spirit of Anish Kapoor. In any case, Mr. Balasubramaniam, self‐taught as a sculptor, is young, savvy and in the middle of a spurt of growth. It could take him anywhere, but thereʹs already a lot here.
-Holland Cotter