Enrico David @ The Hepworth, Wakefield

I am standing face to face with a tip-toeing bronze figure. Its bodily length, hands behind back, is leaning against the gallery wall, and it seems to be listening intently to something in the wall. Perhaps it's the scratchings of the giant mouse inside the wall cavity, the one that laid the three droppings that are located behind the figure itself. These ‘droppings,’ small graphite balls, are scattered all over the exhibition. They serve as both punctuation and disruption, waste produced by the sculptures themselves – in fear or excitement, I wonder?

This is David’s first solo exhibition since his Turner Prize nomination in 2009 and it fills Gallery 10, the largest gallery space at The Hepworth. The sculptures and drawings are full of kinetic energy and movement; some life-size, some placed on plinths or on the floor, some in yogic positions, like Life Sentences, a stick-like bearded man with multiple arms reading a book. I read later that the man is actually reading one of David’s previous catalogue essays. He is bathed in the Wakefield light pouring from the large facing window and in front of him hangs another sculpture, Proud Mary. This seems more organic, perhaps the rib cage of a dinosaur from a natural history museum.

Elsewhere, a small army of figures decreasing in height hangs from the ceiling. The toy-soldier bodies have triangle legs and manage to look menacing, without losing a humorousness. They look like the both funny and not-funny joke where you pretend to walk down a flight of stairs where there is none. Their angular helmeted heads have a Cubist quality. The smaller sculptures in the exhibition are just as interesting. My favourite was a slightly phallic sculpture made from Jesmonite, graphite and copper. It seems to be a headless figure jumping from the small incorporated plinth. Copper lines spring from its figure joyously and it has the look, perhaps minus the penis, of the kind of colourful radiating sunbursts you see in religious church artwork or stained glass.

There is a lot to enjoy in Enrico David’s show and it is well worth the visit before it closes in January but make sure to make time for the other show, running alongside David’s – Wild Girl: Gertrude Hermes. More sculpture and works on paper make up the first solo consideration of the British artist’s work for more than 30 years. In both Hermes' and David’s work we can see the links between craft and drawing, sketch and fabrication. The two artists' work, seen alongside each other, demonstrates the breadth that can be found within a single artist's practice and also the singularity and similarity of both.