Virginia Museum of Fine Arts robert lazzarini Text by John B. Ravenal 64 pages, 24 color illustrations, hardcover Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 2800 Grove Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23221-2466 (804) 204-2719 http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/bookstore.html Already familiar to viewers of the 2002 Whitney Museum Biennial, Robert Lazzarini is an American sculptor whose work unites extreme realism with extreme distortion. Combining advanced digital technology with traditional sculpting methods, Lazzarini re-creates familiar objects to scale out of their original materials, while deforming them in seemingly impossible ways. Appearing to expand and contract as viewers shift vantage points, the works seem to collapse upon themselves or, in the artist’s words, “slip toward their own demise.” Designed by the artist, robert lazzarini surveys his major work from 1997 to the present and coincides with his first solo museum exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The publication is envisioned as an exhibition in book format and its opening pages create unique visual spaces in which Lazzarini presents the work. With an essay by John B. Ravenal describing Lazzarini’s creative process and how his objects relate to the histories of perception and distortion in art, this publication will fascinate all who appreciate and study contemporary art. Born in 1965, Robert Lazzarini is considered among the most important young American sculptors working today. John B. Ravenal is Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. ISBN 0-917046-66-8 Distributed by the University of Virginia Press.