Shark Girl

Shark Girl is a painted fiberglass public sculpture by Casey Riordan Millard, an American artist born in 1973, created in 2013. Absurd, hilarious, and bittersweet, the figure may appear sorrowful or lonely, yet it also carries a comic "fish out of water" element. In Millard’s first public sculpture, Shark Girl waits patiently with legs daintily crossed and hands folded for a companion to join her. Appearing in nearly all of Millard’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures, Shark Girl was originally conceived as the artist reflected on the existential conundrums of life, love, family, and loss. The figure can be seen either as a diversionary tactic or as a way of confronting the challenges of contemporary life, and its yearning for normalcy and acceptance evokes both laughter and empathy. The boulder on which she sits invites viewers to take a seat and initiate a friendship with this bizarre half-shark, half-girl.

Buffalo, New York · United States