Skip to main content
Askew
Askew

Askew

Artist Roxy Paine American, born 1966
Date2009
MediumStainless steel
DimensionsH. 46 ft. 8 in. (14.23 m)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineGift in honor of Julia Jones Daniels, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Museum of Art (1998–2002) and member of the Board of Trustees (1983–1995)
Object number2009.10
On View
On view
Label TextAskew is part of a series of works by Paine that he describes as “dendroids”—treelike forms with elaborate branching structures. His human-made versions of natural elements blur the boundaries between natural and artificial, handmade and machine-made.

Paine has described his work as a “collision of the industrial world with the natural world” and an exploration of the human desire to order and control nature. The stainless-steel surfaces of the work change dramatically with the light— mirroring, absorbing, and reflecting the tree’s environment.
[L. Dougherty, 2024]
ProvenanceCommissioned by the North Carolina Museum of Art with funds from the Josephus Daniels Charitable Fund at the Triangle Community FoundationPublished ReferencesLinda J. Dougherty, entry for Askew, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 568, illus. (color) 569.

Laura Petrides Wall, with photos by Gus Samarco, “Through the Lens: In Plain Sight,” Walter (July/August 2018), illus. (color) 86–87.

Victoria Scott-Miller, The Museum Lives in Me (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2022), illus 4 (artist's illustration).
Object Rights Statement

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.

Metaphase
Roy Gussow
20th century
Double Balance
Victor A. Pickett
mid-20th century
Persephone
George Rickey
1960
Two Up, Two Out
George Rickey
1965
Prism 5
Wim Botha
2013
Prism 7
Wim Botha
2014
Mirror Labyrinth NY
Jeppe Hein
2016
Quadrilateral Theme II
George Rickey
1976