This set of six prints that take as their subject hands from some of Michelangelo’s (Italian, 1475–1564) sculptures, including classics of the Western tradition like Pietà, 1497–1500, and David, 1501–4, as seen in a series of found photographs appropriated by Danh Võ. He was quite taken by the tight cropping, which draws our attention to the details of this often overlooked element of figurative sculpture, such as the elegant way in which the slight tilt of a wrist disappears into the line of an arm, the sinuous bulge of veins, or how a centuries-old stone hand can seem shockingly intimate.

In his practice, Võ frequently employs objects that have emotional and historical significance in his explorations of how identity and values are formed and, ultimately, inherited in social and political contexts. For example, the Albright-Knox’s collection also includes a portion of the artist’s sculptural project We The People, for which he divided a full-size copper replica of the Statue of Liberty into several hundred pieces. “I don’t believe that things come from within you,” Võ commented. “To me things come out of the continuous dialogue you have with your surroundings.”