Sperone Westwater is pleased to announce an installation of two sculptural works by Wolfgang Laib.  Created entirely from materials found in nature, this exhibition will feature Milkstone, 1987 – 2001, a hand polished slab of marble with a shallow indentation onto which a fresh layer of milk is poured; and Rice House, 2002, a four-foot long marble floor sculpture in the shape of a house surrounded by mounds of white rice.  These primary structures reflect the artist’s interest in pre-modern and non-western dwellings and spiritual places.

A German artist, whose works are comprised of marble and organic elements such as milk, pollen, rice and beeswax, Wolfgang Laib is known for his pristine and contemplative work.  Born in 1950 in Metzingen, Germany, Laib originally studied medicine at the University of Tübingen.  Disillusioned with Western medicine, he came to view the natural sciences, as well as most other modern thinking, as limited for their dependency on logic and the material world.  His search for something else led him to Eastern spiritualism, philosophy and pre-Renaissance thought.  Since 1975, Wolfgang Laib has worked exclusively as an artist and has built an international reputation. Surveying 25 years of his artistic production, the American Federation of the Arts organized a retrospective of the artist’s work in 2000.  Currently on view at Haus der Kunst, Munich (1 November – 19 January, 2003) this exhibition has traveled to venues including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (26 October – 22 January, 2001); Henry Art Gallery (25 February – 6 May, 2001); Dallas Museum of Art (29 May – 2 September, 2001); Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (5 October – 6 January, 2002); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (27 January – 19 May, 2002).  A catalogue was published in corroboration with this retrospective and is available at Sperone Westwater.  Laib’s work may be found in museum collections worldwide including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Capc (Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux), France; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, Germany.