Martin Puryear

Puryear is known for combining materials such as wood, bronze, steel, stone, and wire mesh. His sculptures often use labor-intensive construction and architectural forms rather than relying on a single industrial material.

Ladder for Booker T. Washington is a tall wooden sculpture completed in 1996. Its dramatically tapering form has been interpreted through themes of aspiration, education, race, and the limits imposed on African American advancement.

Puryear often evokes African American history through titles, symbolic forms, and references to labor, craft, migration, and aspiration. He tends to leave the meaning open rather than illustrating a specific historical scene directly.

Big Bling is a monumental sculpture first presented in New York's Madison Square Park in 2016. Its large, mask-like and architectural structure combines wood, steel, and chain-link elements in a form that invites several readings about power and identity.