On a recent morning in Chelsea, Richard Serra was surveying the origin story of an artist who rewards revisitation: himself. Revered for the rapture and disorientation that attends his monumental rusted-steel sculptures—most notably those in his celebrated series of "Torqued Ellipses"—Mr. Serra, now 73, has long brought an artistic sense to architecture and an architectural sense to art, wresting animated states from inanimate matter. Starting Friday, formative examples of that mission will be on display in "Early Work," an exhibition at the new outpost of the David Zwirner gallery on West 20th Street.
Focusing on work between 1966 and 1971, the exhibit shows Mr. Serra playing with mixed materials in his early years in New York, when he worked closely with the musician Philip Glass and illustrious others in the downtown arts scene. Among the works are "To Lift," a piece of vulcanized rubber made to twist and stand on its own; "One Ton Prop (House of Cards)," an arrangement of lead plates standing together against gravity; and "Strike," a monolithic rusted-steel sculpture suggestive of later work to come.
Walking through the exhibit before crowds had a chance to assemble, Mr. Serra spoke with The Wall Street Journal about downtown resourcefulness, thinking through sculptural moves with Mr. Glass and learning to look at materials as malleable forms.