Alex Roskin’s dynamic white ebony dining table, titled Trois Jambes, rests on an polished aluminum tripod base. The pale straw color of the white ebony, with its dramatic black streaks, is bookmatched in an alternating pattern emphazising the asymmetry of the sculpted base.

Roskin’s works blend functional design with modernist sculptural references. A natural successor of innovative artists such as Richard Serra, Jean Arp, and Constantin Brancusi, Roskin’s sculptural works reflect the artist’s modernist and primitive influences. Beginning with a series of quick sketches, Roskin captures the movement of a basic form. By sculpting in foam and wood Roskin translates that movement into a structural model that can then be cast in bronze, or formed in aluminum or steel, and finished with carved wood elements.

Rejecting outright anthropomorphic mimicry in favor of subtle, sculpted muscular forms, Roskin notes: “I try with each piece to create a stance and a presence, some with more contrapposto. I aim to give each piece a feeling it is inhaling or ready to make a move. I try to steer clear of the decorative, but rather to draw on mass, volume, line, negative space, and my love of materials and the craft of working with them.”