Michael Locascio

Michael Locascio is a sculptor based in New Jersey who makes and sells small-edition gothic sculpture through his studio, Dellamorte & Co. (sometimes written Della Morte & Co.). His best-known piece is Ghost in the Mirror, a cast-resin wall sculpture of a translucent Victorian phantom climbing out of an ornate looking glass, which spread rapidly on social media around 2019 and 2020.

Training

Press profiles report that Locascio trained in classical figurative sculpture, including study at the stone-carving workshops associated with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and at the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, and later at New York University. His training included drawing from live models and anatomical study, which shows in the sure modeling of hands and faces in his small figures.

Style and subjects

Locascio's subjects come from the world of Victorian horror fiction, the ghost stories of writers such as Sheridan Le Fanu and Wilkie Collins, and from the imagery of crypts, catacombs, skeletons and mythology. His pieces are cast in resin, often finished to look like aged stone, bronze or, in the case of the ghosts, milky translucent glass, and are designed as objects for the home rather than for the gallery.

Ghost in the Mirror

In Ghost in the Mirror a gaunt gentleman in waistcoat and cravat pushes through the glass, which ripples around his waist like water; he holds a candelabrum in one hand and reaches into the room with the other. Male and female versions exist. The piece plays on a long tradition of haunted mirrors in folklore and fiction, in which the reflection opens onto another world. It became a favorite of gothic and dark academia interiors online.

Where to see his work

Locascio's sculptures are sold directly through Dellamorte & Co. and are in private hands. For older images of the dead returning, see James Tissot's The Apparition and the collection Dark Academia.