Nasher Sculpture Center will present Bruce Nauman's "Identical," an exhibition of recent sculptures and drawings depicting animal forms that build upon the artist’s long-term investigation of his own role as an artist and his daily practice in the studio.

For over six decades, Nauman (American, b. 1941) has worked in a stunning range of media, from video, film, and sound, to neon, wax, and performance. His earliest works took his own body as subject matter, resulting in body casts and repetitive actions recorded on video.

"Identical" features a group of polyurethane, silicone rubber, and plaster-cast animal forms fabricated from elements the artist had in his New Mexico studio, as well as a selection of related silverpoint and goldpoint still life drawings. Nauman assembled the sculptures from polyurethane foam taxidermy molds of coyotes and foxes, wild animals common to the New Mexico ranchland where the artist has lived and worked since the 1980s.

The taxidermy molds are commercially manufactured forms used by taxidermists to provide an interior body for skins, furs, and the deceased animal. In "Identical," Nauman enlivens the forms through composition and replication, casting similar animal parts in plaster and arranging the casts into ordered compositions that mimic their foam counterparts. Wires join and ensnare the abstracted creatures in intimate, absurd, or aggressive suspended configurations, a sentiment heightened by the scrap lumber, hammers, cardboard, steel, and disembodied cast bronze heads that anchor the sculptures to the floor. Suspended amongst the tangled objects and animal forms are the silicone molds used to produce the plaster counterparts, displayed at the Nasher for the first time.

The exhibition will remain on display through March 21, 2027.