Shelter Serra

Ten Years: Select Artworks Shelter Serra

Shelter Serra's sculptures and drawings explore notions of mass consumption and cultural identity. He juxtaposes objects that are both mundane and immediately recognizable: a 40 ounce bottle of malt liquor cast in plaster, a Best Buy cap plated in copper, and a designer handbag cast in resin, to name a few. Casting and plating these objects in unlikely materials-resin, plaster, platinum silicone, and copper-Serra strips them of their intended functionality, thereby highlighting their underlying cultural symbolism and transforming branded products into objects of aesthetic contemplation. "Refining an aesthetic and making beautiful objects, whether that be a dress, bag, or sculpture," says Serra, "is a celebration of pure creativity and personal vision."




His Fake Gun series (2012) groups brightly-colored cast resin guns, of a make traditionally used by law enforcement, neatly displayed in small table-top vitrines. Presented outside of their usual setting, the guns are loaded with subliminal cues: Hollywood's glamorized brand of violence, police brutality, and current debates about gun ownership. Most poignantly, the gleaming guns are reminiscent of children's toys. The result is a potent commentary on how we relate to the objects and images that bombard our daily lives and collective memory, as well as the repercussions of our pervasive consumer culture.