Josiah McElheny (Born 1966 in Boston) is known for sculptural installations of handmade glass objects in precisely designed vitrines, pedestals, or wall units. They are often accompanied by explanatory texts, documentation, or titles that reflect on the origins of traditional craft and design, their role in the history of modern aesthetics, and the ideologies these aesthetics project.
Halo after Botticelli features a wall-mounted, circular glass object juxtaposed with a framed reproduction of a portion of Sandro Botticelli’s painting Virgin and Child with an Angel (1470–74). A three-dimensional reimagining of the diaphanous halo that appears atop the Virgin Mary’s head in Botticelli’s painting, the handmade glass object is studded with a network of gold stars that refracts light against the wall, suggesting the heavenly matter of the halo, which itself refracts celestial power in order to identify a figure of divine influence. As a sculptural translation of Renaissance iconography, Halo after Botticelli also acknowledges the genealogies of influence within the history of Western art.
