Italo Scanga’s recent work continues to provide his signature mix of whimsy and visually satisfying poetic effects—its lassitude and play evoke a sprightly delight. His sculptures are actually no more than complex vase holders, rather abstruse assemblages of found and altered objects recycled into near-votive presentations. Like flowers hopefully held out by a suitor, these are wistful pieces, charming in their unrelieved eagerness and amiability. Scanga uses dreamily pigmented, conical blown-glass vases, and then it’s off to the resale shop where he collects a wide range of junk metal that he

The world of the haunch, hoof, and mane seems largely divorced from the mainstream of modern existence, has, in fact, become a nostalgic trope—the stuff of revery and myth. As a focus in modern art, horses have really been right at the heart of only two artist’s careers: Marino Marini’s and Deborah Butterfield’s. Not coincidentally, the work of both of these sculptors reflects the beauty and rhythmic power of the animal world—its resplendence and corporeality, its stoic splendor and grace.

From her home and studio in Bozeman, Montana, Butterfield continues to investigate these representations,