Cristo Escamilla: Red Headed Agama Lizard Wire Art

Artist Cristo Escamilla's red-headed agama really stops you in your tracks, that cobalt body, that brick-red head, and it's not artistic license. The male Agama agama, native to the rocky outcrops of sub-Saharan Africa, actually looks like this. Dominant males flush into full color to signal territory and attract mates, making them one of the most visually arresting lizards on the planet. Cristo has rendered that biological drama in miniature with complete conviction.

The piece is built from magnet wire, fine enameled copper wire whose resin coating carries the color,  looped and massed by hand until the body achieves real volume and weight. The blue shifts and shimmers depending on the light, while the red head reads as dense and almost velvety. Once the form is complete, Cristo applies paint into the recesses between the loops, deepening the shadows and giving the surface the kind of tonal depth you'd expect from a painting, not a wire sculpture.

The pose is perfect: flat, splayed, utterly at ease, like a lizard who has found the best warm rock and has no plans to move!

Origin: Mexico City
Dimensions: 2''Tall 8''Long 5''Wide