Sculptor Alan LeQuire is no stranger to making large-scale art: His re-creation of Athena Parthenos in Centennial Park's Parthenon and the Musica statue at the Music Row Roundabout are two of the largest and most viewed pieces of public art in the city. He's no stranger to controversy either—Musica's nude figures touched off a firestorm among Nashville's more puritanical elements, and critics are divided over the merits of his work, with many praising the grace and classical beauty of his pieces and others faulting him for the very same classicism. (Any artist who ignites such debate is doing something right.) Dream Forest is LeQuire's latest large-scale work, and the first that he didn't do for hire. The artist describes the sculpture, which features nine 12-foot-tall torsos in treelike poses, as "an ode to the disappearing forest ecosystem."
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: July 9. Continues through Sept. 27, 2009
