An exhibit of work by sculptor David Garratt opens Thursday, Oct. 22 in the Babcock Gallery at Sweet Briar College. Titled, “Confirmed by Their Denial,” the show opens with a 4:30 to 6 p.m. reception and gallery talk by the artist and runs through Sunday, Dec. 6. Admission is free.

The exhibit consists of sculpted heads that are so realistic one might think the artist begins by pouring plaster over some poor soul’s noggin to make a mold, crow’s feet, laugh lines and all. But that’s not at all how Garratt operates.

“I use my hands to sculpt clay,” Garratt writes in his artist’s statement. “I often have to inform and remind people who see my work of this fact as many assume that I use a plaster-cast mold for the face or parts of a head.

“I do not make any preliminary drawings or sketches … nor do I rely on any anatomic study. What I depend on in my work, through the past years, early influences and current work, is the inquiry and searching of how to express and convey the irreplaceable and incomparable quality of being human.”

The show includes more than a dozen life-size sculptures, many of which resemble the artist. Although Garratt admits to using himself as a model recently, he insists his creations are inspired by people he sees every day — at the market, on the street and elsewhere.

“I make the sculpture as a form of tactile empathetic response to what I imagine their world view and inner life to be; to touch lives that I only imagine and a way to, perhaps, make memorable an everyday moment in a world that disregards paying attention to temporary moments in time,” he writes.

“They are not portraits but glimpses of expression, of character, of personalities and avenues toward connection and meaning.”

Garratt lives at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts with his wife, installation artist Barbara Bernstein. During the spring semester, Bernstein will exhibit her work in the College’s Benedict Gallery.

Babcock Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and when the building is open for lectures, performances or other College-sponsored events. For more information, contact galleries director Karol Lawson at klawson@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6248.