As a building material, concrete has become a sign of the soullessness of contemporary cities. But an essential element of Modern sculpture has been its recourse to the banal materials of everyday life. Steel, discarded junk, plywood, and Styrofoam have successfully challenged the “noble” materials—bronze, marble, wood—and concrete too has entered the landscape of creative form. Among other artists, the young German sculptor Hubert Kiecol makes it his preferred medium.

Kiecol’s dense constructions are distinguished from residential and industrial concrete forms only by their small format. (Most