Wood Works (1)

Michelangelo freed his David from a block of marble, but Ursula von Rydingsvard's large-scale sculptures are more addition than subtraction. She builds them from milled cedar beams she shapes with a circular saw. Starting Sept. 23, the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland will showcase several of her works. Each monumental sculpture, such as Halo with a Strait Line (pictured), can take up to a year to create as von Rydingsvard makes 30 to 60 straight cuts in each beam to form the curve she needs before placing it. She describes her work as "abstract with metaphorical connections" to images she encounters, be it archaic African objects or the Mayan ruins of Guatemala. "It's driven by something strong inside of me," she explains, "an intuitive and mobilizing force." 8501 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland, 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org