Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

The desert rose is a natural phenomenon occurring in arid, sandy conditions when gypsum minerals form petal-like crystalline clusters resembling rose blossoms. Using computer modeling and three-dimensional printing, artist Steven Naifeh emulates and amplifies these forms in large-scale sculptures. Desert Rose: Spiralic Countering is his largest and most ambitious work of the series to date. Extrapolating the desert rose structure into a monumental pillar, Naifeh alludes to the modernist masterwork Endless Column by Constantin Brâncuși while still upholding traditional sculpture’s commitment to a close study of nature. In this case, Naifeh employs advanced technology to analyze and reproduce a natural scientific wonder. His interest in Islamic geometric abstraction, a result of his having grown up in the Middle East, is apparent in Desert Rose series, as well as some of his other sculptures that more directly refer to the decorative traditions of the region.