Robert Gober is an American sculptor and installation artist known for his eerie and evocative reconsiderations of everyday objects. His common motifs include the human body and domestic objects examined, often with humor, through notions such as religion, sexuality, childhood, and change. Gober studied at Middlebury College (1972–76), spending his junior year abroad at the Tyler School in Rome before settling in New York City. After a brief period as a painter, he drew notice in the 1980s with a series of haunting sculptures loosely based on the forms of household items such as sinks, drains, and playpens. Gober carried these ideas further in sculptures and installations that commingled the familiar with the strange. In 1999, Gober was awarded the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture by the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He participated in the 2001 Venice Biennale and was the subject of a retrospective in 2007 at the Schaulager Museum in Basel, Switzerland. In 2014, the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a major survey of his work, the first of its kind in the United States. Based in New York City, Gober is represented by Matthew Marks Gallery.