Life-Size Celebrity Collage Labrador Dog Sculpture, Sun Valley, C. 2001

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A wonderfully eccentric and impressive life-size Labrador sculpture, measuring over four feet long, believed to have been created for “Summer … Read more A wonderfully eccentric and impressive life-size Labrador sculpture, measuring over four feet long, believed to have been created for “Summer of Labs,” the 2001 public-art exhibition held in Sun Valley and Idaho’s Wood River Valley.

Measuring 51 inches nose-to-tail and 38.25 inches to the top of the head, the oversized dog has tremendous sculptural presence. Its surface is completely transformed through an elaborate mixed-media collage incorporating celebrity directories, Hollywood addresses, maps and entertainment ephemera.

A wonderfully eccentric life-size Labrador sculpture believed to have been created for “Summer of Labs,” the 2001 public art exhibition held in Sun Valley and the Wood River Valley, Idaho. Inspired by public-art projects such as Chicago’s Cows on Parade, the exhibition featured oversized fiberglass Labrador forms individually transformed by artists and later auctioned for charity.

This particular dog is covered in an elaborate mixed-media collage of vintage maps, celebrity directories and Hollywood ephemera. Hundreds of celebrity names and addresses appear across the surface, including Cher, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Drew Barrymore, Quentin Tarantino, Billy Crystal, Richard Dreyfuss, Patricia Arquette and many others.

One especially charming element is an applied illustrated map of Los Angeles featuring caricatures of Hollywood personalities and an E! Online logo, reinforcing the sculpture’s witty celebrity/Hollywood theme.

The underlying form is a wonderfully stylized, larger-than-life Labrador retriever with considerable sculptural presence. It works equally well as contemporary folk/pop art, a conversation piece or an unexpected decorative object in an eclectic interior.

Acquired from an estate whose seller represented the sculpture as having been part of a western public-art exhibition in which identical dog forms were decorated by different artists. Subsequent research strongly suggests the 2001 Sun Valley “Summer of Labs” exhibition, although the individual artist and original title have not yet been identified and this attribution is therefore not guaranteed. See less