Artist Karen LaMonte loved the classics, but her reimaginings of classical sculptures are very modern. Working in cast glass, porcelain, or bronze rather than marble, LaMonte sculpts just the draped gowns and fabrics seen on traditional marble figural sculptures. But somehow, by removing the human figure, she manages to breathe new life into these sculptures, rendering them somehow more approachable and oddly, more alive.

“I have always been fascinated by how conceptions of beauty define desire and generate the building blocks of allure—the language of attraction. Like spoken or written language, beauty is shaped by common idioms and shared experiences that are the foundations of culture. In this way, it is more than just a description; it is a reflection of a greater whole, a visual representation of what is valued in a society.”

I was initially a bit disappointed to learn her sculptures were not all larger-than-life sized as I’d imagined but instead many are tabletop sized. But after thinking about it for a while, I concluded that maybe part of what makes her work so approachable is that it’s not all hanging out on a large pedestal, looking down at you.

You can follow the remarkable Karen LaMonte on her website and on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.