David Opdyke grew up Schenectady, New York, Coming of age in the 1970s, Opdyke witnessed the rapid decline of manufacturing and nature's subsequent takeover of a city'Â?s abandoned remains. He also witnessed the bulldozers bury the surrounding woods and farmland to make sprawling new suburban developments. Those images of transformation and decay permeate his work today. Working with an obsessive attention to detail, Opdyke creates immersive art that both delights and disturbs. Hyper-realistic models, intricate sculptures of detritus and civilization'Â?s excess, and monuments to failed ideals comprise much of his work. Opdyke meticulously handcrafts each piece, creating a world of familiar oddities, political metaphors, and freakish hybrids. Each piece is a study in duality. In one stroke, Opdyke skewers the bloated excess and self-importance of political and material structures, while reveling in the absurdity and capabilities of human nature: our innate drive to consume, build, and destroy.