Auguste Rodin once described sculpture as “the art of the hole and the lump”. This rings no truer than when meeting Patricia Piccinini’s ‘Stem Cell’. Conceived in relation to her 2003 Venice Biennale exhibition, this work is at once just a lump and so much more.

Pitching the cute against the grotesque, Piccinini’s creatures incite empathy while courting revulsion. They toy with the line between alien and anthropomorphic, pricking pertinent ideas around technology, nature and the ‘other’. In ‘Stem Cell’, this is pared back to its roots. With the potential to become anything, the cell is a prototype for the experimental and unknown. Like the microscopic parts that make up humans, it is deceptively minimal.

Among Australia’s most respected artists nationally and internationally, Piccinini is represented in most national, state and many regional public collections, including at the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. She has exhibited extensively, winning acclaim for her innovative, boundary bending work. 

For serious collectors of contemporary art and sculpture, as well all who are invested in the questions of our life, ‘Stem Cell’ is the lump for you.

Patricia PICCININI (1965 - )
'Stem Cell' 2003
Plaster
Dimensions: 14 x 27 x 13 cm
Condition: Excellent Condition

Related Works: Still Life with Stem Cells, silicon, polyurethane, clothing, human hair, dimensions variable, exhibited Patricia Piccinini: We are Family, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2003