In 1973, Laing abandoned pure abstraction and began modelling in clay and casting in bronze, becoming one of the country’s leading figurative sculptors. The Galina series and associated sculptures were his first works from this period. The series shows the route by which Laing returned to the figure, though the geometry of his abstract sculpture was influential and is still present, and can be seen as the zenith of Laing’s career. Describing this first sculpture, Laing said the following:

“…the breast is a perfect demi-pyramid; one shoulder is organic and tender; one is geometric. The true vertical line up the centre of the work which ends in a depressed oval which refers to the soft indentation of the temple, is at the same time a conscious homage to Picasso’s Femme-Fleur. The heads, however, beginning with Galina I, are derived from comic heroes such as the Silver Surfer (who rode the stratosphere looking down and murmuring to himself, ‘Alas what fools these mortals be’). And these comic images have, of course, roots in Japanese art and applied art, and probably run much deeper than that into the elemental human psyche.”

In the four years following Galina I, a further eight sculptures were made for the series at Kinkell, in Amagansett, Long Island, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Laing spent a year at the University as Visiting Professor of Painting and Sculpture.