FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The work of Leonard Cave, internationally-known sculptor who was killed in a 2006 Washington, D.C. area automobile accident, lives on in his plexiglass, wood, stone and metal sculptures that are exhibited worldwide.

Cave’s sculptures were willed to friends and family, seven of which will be on exhibit and sale at Fairhope’s Eastern Shore Art Center through the end of February.

The Cave sculptures, along with two framed original prints, are available through the generosity of Fairhope residents and former Cincinnati, Ohio art gallery owners Maribeth and Don Malton.

The Maltons are donating one of 10 works, “Diversity,” an 1,100-pound, multi-stone composition, to Fairhope’s Committee On Public Art (COPA), a committee of the Eastern Shore Art Association. “Diversity” will be on display on the ESAC grounds on Oak Street.

The remaining nine artworks will be on exhibit and available for sale for the two months in the courtyard of the ESAC. The Maltons are sharing the proceeds with COPA and the ESAA. A special reception for COPA patrons will take place Jan. 22.

A co-founder of The Washington Sculptors Group, Cave, 61, grew up in rural South Carolina where he began carving wood with a chainsaw. He later expanded to stone, metal and acrylic sculpture.

He taught at Georgetown University, and at the time of his death, was an art instructor at Northwest High School in Germantown, Md.

Cave’s father died when he was a teenager and the family worked hard to stay together. He went through most of his younger years with Tourette’s Syndrome, and was teased and taunted, according to family members. He outgrew most of the symptoms but this experience, according to colleagues, helped him to reach out to students who others could not reach.

“He took the neediest, the most downtrodden of students and helped them find a way to gain self-respect,” one said.

Cave studied art at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. on an academic and athletic scholarship. Even there, he faced adversity.

Cave was a pole vaulter and during a competition, he was the fifth person to use the wooden pole. When he was upright, one family member recalled, the pole snapped in half and he broke his back.

He persevered and devoted himself even more to his chainsaw carvings.

Years later, Cave took a train north “with only $60 in his pocket” to attend the University of Maryland where he pursued a master’s degree in art.

During his later years, he did commissioned pieces for the U.S. State Department and the White House.

Considered a “contemporary master,” his sculptures have been in galleries with works by Kandinsky, Matisse and Picasso.

The nine pieces in Fairhope include “Entwined” in black marble; “Totem” in painted wood with carved embellishments; “Recline” in laminated wood; “Southern Light” in acrylic on stone base; “Sun Catcher” in acrylic; “Light Portal” in acrylic; “Glass Tower” in acrylic on metal base; “Distortion” in computer-generated print, framed; and “Blur” in computer-generated print, framed..

For more information, call the Eastern Shore Art Center at (251) 928-2228.