Miami-born, California-based artist Woody De Othello’s subject matter spans household objects, bodily features, and the natural world. Everyday artifacts of the domestic tables, chairs, television remotes, telephone receivers, lamps, air purifiers, etc.—are anthropomorphized in glazed ceramic, bronze, wood, and glass. Othello’s sense of humor manifests across his work in visual puns and cartoonish figuration. “I choose objects that are already very human,” says Othello. “The objects mimic actions that humans perform; they’re extensions of our own actions. We use phones to speak and to listen, clocks to tell time, vessels to hold things, and our bodies are indicators of all of those.”

Writer and editor Charles Schultz is Managing Editor of the Brooklyn Rail.