Duality represents a principle that is fundamental to art from all time periods and cultures—it is the timeless paradox that opposites exist in harmony and interdependence with one another. Light and dark, day and night, male and female: each principle is defined by its opposite, and when the two are seen in balance a state of harmony is achieved: we perceive a oneness that is transcendent. Richard MacDonald’s expression of this universal truth in Duality is communicated in a composition of power, subtlety, and grace. A peaceful serenity in the midst of complexity.

A powerful, primeval figure The Guardian is an evocative character that takes the viewer’s imagination into the realm of legend just by his very nature — rugged, unknowable, and mysterious. Richly pigmented earthy red warms the strong and balanced form of the man and moves through a range of shades as our eye travels over the symmetry of the body, which is enlivened by a surface treatment that reveals the artist’s gesture in the original clay — swirling textural lines that wrap the muscularity like lines on an old master’s drawing. Tribal body paint, a headdress, and a bullwhip add to the intrigue of The Guardian.