Thomas Schütte (b.1954) is known for his strange and often disturbing transformations of the human form. Since graduating from the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied under Gerhard Richter between 1973 and 1981, the German artist has employed a remarkable array of artistic techniques and visual languages. His sculptural works often begin as small ceramic models that are then cast at large scale, such as the ambitious ‘Bronzefrau’ series (1999-2009), which subverts a traditional sculptural theme: the reclining female figure. Probing the line between abstraction and figuration, Bronzefrau Nr. 11 depicts a impossibly contorted woman on a steel table, her reptilian-like spine folded over her torso. Her head is faceless and disfigured, resembling an embryonic form somewhere between human, animal and extraterrestrial. While Schütte avoids offering interpretive guidance, this bronze sculpture is firmly located within his broader enquiries into the role of art and the complexities of the human condition.