About Face

The Los Angeles artist Aaron Curry slices mischievous monsters and ghosts from sheets of metal and wood. Painted in wild fluorescent colors, they look like something Alexander Calder might have come up with, had he been a fan of outré comics. The creations have won the 41-year-old Curry acclaim as one of the leading sculptors of his generation, and a midcareer survey of his work will be on view at the CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain in Bordeaux, France, June 26 through September 14. But last year, Curry made a radical shift. “I got some canvases, and I started painting,” he says. “I was just trying to have fun.” This new work will debut at Michael Werner Gallery in London June 5. “I’m thinking of them as faces,” he says of the paintings, which pulse with masklike abstractions, quick marks, and careful illustrations. Inspired by William Copley, Alien designer H. R. Giger, Peter Saul, and Francis Picabia, Curry is excited by how immediate his practice has become. “I just paint, and something starts to happen.”