Charles LeDray
Charles LeDray
born 1960
American sculptor and installation artist. LeDray briefly attended Cornish College in Seattle, but is largely self-taught. After working as a security guard at the Seattle Art Museum, he moved to New York. Having been taught to sew by his mother when he was four years old, LeDray used those skills to create small-scale sculptures of clothing, hats, and other objects of everyday life. He also has worked in clay and carved human bone.
Scale is an important issue for LeDray. Most of his works are miniature, but the degree of miniaturization varies. LeDray elusively says of his sculptures that they are the size they need to be. The installation workworkworkworkwork (1991) consisted of 588 small, minutely detailed items spread over more than 13 m of pavement in New York’s Cooper Square. The objects included clothing, books, jewellery, and other types of items regularly offered for sale on New York streets, but all were handmade by LeDray at a non-functional scale. He has often worked in a serial fashion: Milk & Honey (1994) and Oasis (1996–2003) each consist of 2000 tiny hand-thrown and glazed ceramic vessels meant to be shown as ensembles. Mens Suits (2006–9) is a three-room installation of what appear to be thrift shop displays. LeDray created everything: the racks and tables of clothing, the floor, and the low-hung lighting, on top of which he even included dust. The tiny disembodied garments, piled or hung on small hangers, suggest a narrative of history and use. In LeDray’s oeuvre clothes are often expressions of identity, but the wearers are never shown. He is as meticulous in assembling installations as he is in the crafting of his pieces. While many contemporary artists elect to work with assistants, LeDray does everything himself, attending to every detail personally.
At one time he considered becoming a toymaker and this can be seen in his hand-stitched stuffed animals. Like the clothing, these toys are tattered and worn, as eloquent in imparting his poignant, enigmatic narratives as the clothing. LeDray also has used human bone as a sculptural medium, carving seemingly random objects such as small-scale rocking chairs and models of the universe. As in all his other work, his skill level is extraordinary.
The theme of absence runs through LeDray’s work. Clothes and hats have no wearers, toys have no children, and the velvet stands in Jewelry Window (2002) bear no jewels. He simply provides objects and sometimes an environment, but no didactic information to shape a narrative. Interpretation is always left to the viewer.
LeDray has received the 2002 International Art Critics Association Award, the 1998 Academy Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, in 1997–8 the Gorham Phillips Stevens Visual Arts Fellowship, and in 1993 the Prix de Rome from the American Academy in Rome and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. [Michele Fricke. "LeDray, Charles." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 9, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2220530.]
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