A Bespoke Bronze

Price: $125,000

Few artists have taken such a ritualized approach to life as Michele Oka Doner, whose SoHo studio is filled with works inspired by nature and created in honor of it: homages to the layers of nacre that give pearls their luster, to trees felled by a storm, and to the tiny treasures encountered during a walk on the beach.

The artist has worked in myriad media—from glass and terra-cotta to bronze and precious metals—to create works ranging from delicate pieces of fine jewelry to fireplace tools in the form of twigs, serving trays resembling bark stripped from a tree, and even a collection of crystal bowls that rest on coral-form nests for Steuben.

Oka Doner is best known, however, for her monumental public projects, among them A Walk on the Beach, a walkway that graces the north terminal of the Miami International Airport. The work features some 9,000 unique cast-bronze elements—in the form of saltwater plants and marine organisms—and smatterings of mother-of-pearl, inset in a dark-gray terrazzo. A mile and a quarter in length, A Walk on the Beach is among the largest artworks in the world.

For one discerning Robb Report reader, Michele Oka Doner has offered to create Interior Life II, a life-size gilded-bronze sculpture based on the physique of the gift recipient. This special one-of-a-kind commission also includes a private consultation and lunch with the artist at her New York City studio, as well as a signed copy of her newly released book Everything Is Alive.

“Within the pictured work, titled Interior Life, there is a wooden object, resembling a heart, that has been placed on the ridge where the torso and legs come together,” explains Oka Doner. The object can be viewed through the openings on either side of the figure, and removed and returned as one desires. Interior Life II will also contain a hidden element. “Until I meet the subject of the sculpture,” she says, “that aspect of the work will remain unknown.”

• Interior Life II, a life-size gilded-bronze sculpture of the recipient.
• Studio visit with artist Michele Oka Doner to make a body cast.
• Lunch with Oka Doner at her New York studio, during an afternoon of consultation.

Michele Oka Doner Studio, info@micheleokadoner.com.

Terms and conditions

Interior Life II will take 3 to 4 months to complete once the measurements of the subject have been made.

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Interior Life II, a life-size gilded bronze sculpture

Photo: Nick Merrick