Daniel Firman

French artist Daniel Firman's work is a diverse bunch of opposites. His life-sized body cast plaster sculptures stand in impossible formations – balanced on each other's feet or crawling upward into an inner tube. Clothed and proportioned, but with faces always hidden, their apparent realness is shocking at first. He plays with the visual trick of making each mannequin look real but defy the laws of gravity at the same time. He achieves the same effect with Suspensions — fully dressed bodies held in the air or flopped over metal bars. It's clear that these aren't static situations — a moment of action has been captured. Not the jump-off or the landing but some instant in between. Incorporated into his installations are his eye-grabbing neon sculptures. The multi-colored lines tend to radiate out from a central point in an attempt to create a perfect shape, but they all deteriorate at a point. Near perfect circles have one line that goes a stray.

One of his current exhibitions, at La Galeri des Galeries, is a celebration in honor of the 20th anniversary of famed French couturier Christian Lacroix. Appropriately, rather than form the body sculptures from plaster he not only dressed them, but formed their very bodies, from Lacroix's clothing.