The Museum of Modern Art, October 4, 2014–January 18, 2015

Over the past decade, Gober’s sculptures have become increasingly complex, both technically and iconographically. The artist sometimes uses casts of existing sculptures and combines them to create provocative hybrid objects, as in the conjunction of a chest, a stool, and a twisted network of children’s legs. Elsewhere, Gober pushes recognizable imagery into unpredictable terrain: a sink’s backsplash morphs into gnarled planks of wood interwoven with casts of fragmented arms. New motifs, such as a surreally melted rifle, have also entered the artist’s visual universe. The strangeness of these new sculptures is presaged by Prayers Are Answered, an early work loosely based on a Catholic church on Seventh Street and Avenue B in the East Village. Instead of the religious scenes usually found in such spaces, Gober’s church is adorned with murals depicting the harshness of daily life in the city.