Walk down the AMC Walkway on East Palm Avenue right now and something stops you. It isn't a store window or a passing conversation. It's a gorilla — vivid, lacquered, larger than life — standing in the middle of a downtown Burbank corridor like it has every right to be there.
That gorilla, along with a collection of equally arresting animal sculptures, belongs to Richard Orlinski — one of France's most celebrated contemporary sculptors, and an artist whose work has appeared in galleries and public spaces from Paris to Miami to Hong Kong. Now, through a free outdoor installation running through July 21st, his sculptures have made their way to Burbank.
"You don't need a museum ticket. You just need to show up — and suddenly you're standing in the middle of world-class contemporary art, on a Tuesday afternoon, in downtown Burbank."
Who Is Richard Orlinski?
Orlinski didn't start as a sculptor. He came up through the music industry — producing records, running labels — before pivoting entirely to visual art in his forties. The transition turned out to be a reinvention that stuck. His work, instantly recognizable for its bold geometric forms and high-gloss finishes, blends pop sensibility with classical subject matter: wild animals rendered in the language of contemporary design.
His gorillas, bears, crocodiles, and wolves aren't trying to be realistic. They're distilled — each piece stripped to its essential energy, then amplified through scale and color until they feel less like sculptures and more like events. The effect in an outdoor, urban setting is striking. Against brick and pavement and the ordinary backdrop of a city afternoon, an Orlinski sculpture doesn't just catch the eye. It resets it.
