Titled Vitruvius’ Recliner [chromatic], Robert Chambers presents an automatic, hydraulic Lay-Z-Boy in the guise of a modified everyday metaphor for the essential symmetry of the universe. Folding and unfolding while bathed in a halo of soothing digital light, Chambers’ recliner actively resembles a person opening from the crouched position to one standing 7’ tall with palms outstretched; thus connecting back to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous study of the ideal proportions of man.

An intensely restless, boundlessly energetic artist, curator, teacher and mad scientist, Robert Chambers is the dynamic hub for a seemingly endless, ebullient welter of creative activity around the world, often specializing in what he has called “contemporary art overload.” Once described as the Keyser Soze of the art world, the highly mobile Chambers has for years adapted largely science-based concerns (he is the son of a well-known cell biologist) with an artistic practice based on non-traditional materials that is equal parts précis on the relations between modern art and science and inspired, impish surrealism. The curator of the widely celebrated 2002 art extravaganza globe>miami>island at the Bass Museum of Art-featuring some 60 artists and over 100 works launched in the shadow of Art Basel’s cancellation of its Miami debut-Chambers’ driving, generous influence has been felt by several generations of artists, both in and out of Florida.