Robert Gober has been exploring sexuality, religion, and politics in his work since the 1970s. Early in his career The New York Times described his sculptures as “minimal forms with maximum content.” In his art even the most commonplace object — a shoe, a sink, a bag of cat litter — contains multiple meanings and implications. The foundation of his practice is the physical act of making. What might appear at first to be a dented can of ordinary house paint, for example, might turn out to be a hand-painted sculpture in solid lead crystal.

While Gober’s work addresses universal themes of loss and longing, his personal experiences deeply influence his art, lending each work a strong sense of intimacy. Among his best-known works are his immersive installations, the first of which, created in 1992, included a barred window set high in a wall, bundles of hand-printed newspapers, and sculptures of sinks complete with running water, among other elements.

In recent years, Gober's sculptures have become progressively more conceptual; photography has come to occupy an increasingly important place in his installations; and his aesthetic vocabulary has continued to expand. Yet his newest work still depends on the delicate balance between formal rigor and carefully choreographed spatial presentations perfected by the artist early in his career, and Gober continues to highlight the arbitrary divisions not only between high art and interior design or between sculpture and functional objects, but also far more entrenched cultural binaries like masculinity and femininity, homosexuality and heterosexuality, the erotic and the abject, the horrible and the hilarious.