Santiago Apolo is an Ecuadorian American sculptor. His work is primarily figurative sculpting in clay with an emphasis on portraiture. Santiago’s portraits are life size or larger and most often cast in plaster. While rooted in realism, his practice is also highly exploratory, experimenting with composition, texture, and surface treatment. Having mastered the anatomical approach to rendering the figure, Santiago have developed his own language centering craftsmanship and a reverence for the materials he works with. He is interested in capturing the gesture of sculpting itself, leaving "sketched" elements in clay to create dynamic interpretations on portraiture. Once cast, his approach does not always consist in smoothing and polishing, preferring instead to leave the process visible. His goal is to maintain my mastery of portraiture while continuing to expand compositionally and discover new genre directions.