BOCA RATON, FLA.- The exhibition Contemporary Sculpture: Sam Anderson and Michael Dean features two breakthrough contemporary sculptors presented by Boca Raton Museum of Art. Featuring evocative works that are actively in sync and play off each other, the exhibition was curated by the Museum’s Assistant Curator, Lanya Snyder and is on view now through October 6th.

Bonded through unspoken language, these two artists form a complex relationship that synthesizes within the Museum’s gallery. Although the works were created by two artists with different trajectories, shown together these works powerfully engage to create the effect of viewing a dynamic dialogue.

The works of the two artists, juxtaposed to one another cause a swirling experience of sculpture: 13 works by American artist Sam Anderson (sculpture and video), and six sculptures by British artist Michael Dean.

Michael Dean’s works can be both abstract and lyrically representational. Beginning with concrete, he often adds other elements such as cable ties, paper, and books, all critical elements in his practice. Sam Anderson’s figurative works utilize long-standing formal traditions of sculpting the human figure. She, too, works with traditional materials such as clay, wood, and wire and often incorporates other elements such as, light, video, and found elements in her work.

Seen together for the first time at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Anderson and Dean explore the junction of formalism and abstraction: a poetic and expressive new language in contemporary sculpture.

"The exhibition was the inspiration of our Assistant Curator, Lanya Snyder, who saw in Michael Dean and Sam Anderson’s sculpture an opportunity to bring together artists who are both exploring themes of communication in a variety of forms, abstract and figurative," said Irvin Lippman, the Executive Director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. "One walks through the gallery with a background of music coming from Andersons’s video installation, tying everything together in a holistic experience."

New York-based artist Sam Anderson’s wide range of work explores the idiosyncrasies of language and gestures employed by archetypes through consistent manipulation of objects, materiality and scale. Her interest in canned or borrowed language stems from her early background in theater and television.

Anderson was born in 1982 in Los Angeles. She received an MFA in sculpture from Yale University in 2010. Her work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe, including Overduin & Co, Los Angeles; Maccarone, New York; Anthology Film Archives, New York; and White Columns, New York.

Anderson’s solo exhibitions include The Great Assumption, JOAN, Los Angeles (2018); A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, Chapter NY, New York (2018); Sam Anderson: The Park, Sculpture Center, New York (2017); Big Bird, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2017); The Lonely Bull, Rowhouse Project, Baltimore (2016); Talley’s Folly, Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin (2015); Endless Love, and Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2015). Anderson’s work was also shown in the group survey exhibition Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2015).

London-based artist Michael Dean makes sculptures that are visually stunning and packed with narratives originating from his own experimental writing, scripts and photography.

His work explores the relationship between written text and physical objects, often laced with a tinge of humor, based on an original alphabet that he created on his own.

Dean was born in 1977 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom. In his sculpture LOLLOLLOL, (Working Title) large concrete figures are held together by colored cable ties.

At first sight, these large colorful forms outwardly appear as if they’re giant elongated balloons, blown full and twisted at the end. But they are not; instead they are colored concrete concealed in plastic.

For nearly two decades, Dean’s work has been featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including David Zwirner, London and the Tate Britain. In 2019, Dean will have a solo exhibition at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City and at S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium, and will also participate in a group show at Palais des Beaux- Arts, Paris.

His most recent solo exhibitions include Having you on, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2018); Analogue LOL, ShanghArt Gallery, Shanghai (2018); Teaxths and Angeruage, Portikus, Frankfurt (2017); Sightings: Michael Dean or Lost True Leaves, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016) and Qualities of Violence, De Appel, Amsterdam (2015). In 2017, Dean was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2016, and was shortlisted for the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. In 2019, Dean exhibited St Carthage Hall, Lismore Castle Arts.