TOM WALDRON: STEEL AND CONCRETE April 26 - May 25, 2024
Tom Waldron
The eye follows a smooth plane, curving gently in pitch, slope on slope, sweeping to meet and create a line. A deep rust form tilts, leaning, forming a deeply shadowed side. A sharp, faceted arc sweeps to a point. Softly interwoven curves braid together in a column. A round oxidized shape seems to fold up on itself, caught in a moment just before it sprouts wings.
It is a trick of sculpture to put us squarely into the here and now. Mass. Volume. Weight. Sculptures inhabit space with us and we with them. They alter the air’s flow through a room. They radiate their own minute gravity. Fully art object, whether molded or cast, carved or welded, sculptures remind us that our world is multi-dimensional – not solely existing in the 2D hybrid mind/light no-space of our screens.
Tom Waldron’s work not only brings us to attention but challenges our perceptions with its deceptively simple forms. It is likely no surprise that Waldron’s entrance into artmaking was spurred by his love of the materiality and physicality of the process. The challenge and intense focus required of welding, its possibilities and generative power led Waldron to leave his studies in architecture to pursue sculpture.
Steel and Concrete brings together a disparate collection of Waldron’s work in different mediums. While he is best known for his steel pieces, this show also incorporates works in concrete, a dense gypsum plaster (Hydro-stone), and even in wood. The concrete and wood pieces have evolved slowly in relationship to the steel works. First, as simply materials for pedestals and bases. However, over time, sometimes the line between sculpture and pedestal would blur. Later, Waldron began to take some of the curved cardboard constructions that he creates as models for his steel works and use them as molds to cast concrete or hydrostone pieces. In this format, Waldron saw the possibilities of using them like modules. Using wood allowed Waldron to explore wall-mounted work because of its lighter weight – but the medium also allowed him freedom to alter and find forms not possible in steel.
The pieces in Steel and Concrete, in each medium exemplify these different properties and effects – the steel pieces with their gently curved volumetric masses tend to encapsulate or bloom into space. Sledge, at over eight feet, and Agave, at five, seem like massive geometric creatures frozen in a moment of twisting growth. Ledge 2 tricks the eye into seeing a rectangular block from one angle – which then bulges and puckers from another. Mounted on a concrete base, Spoonful, inverts Waldron’s more familiar convex curves with a smooth concave scoop out of the sharp-edged steel square.
The concrete pieces included in the exhibition are all columnar – composed of regular interlocking shapes and modules which showcase the motion of uprising lift and rhythm. Shadow Column includes both a wood base and cap which contain a smooth, white, braided sculpture of hydro-stone within. Fan Column, on its wood plinth, is a complex composition of interlocking arced forms in alternating muted colors. His most recent piece, Six Color Column is comprised of gently curved blocks fitted together to create an undulating tower.
Finally, the wood piece, White Cloud 3, explores the same fascination with curved planes and elegantly intersecting lines as Waldron’s steel works – but makes good use of its lighter weight to create a more delicate shape that seems to sail out abstractly from the wall.
Step by step, each sculpture of Steel and Concrete leads the viewer through an experience, from objective observation through to subjective co-existence. Frozen curves intimate at the gentle slowing down of time. (We pause. We notice.) The density of the large steel works grounds our feet into the floor. (We find balance in space as they balance so elegantly in their twisted curved forms.) And the columns, rising slenderly toward human height, feel like fellow beings. (We stand with them, being.)
- Michaela Kahn, PhD
Spoonful, 1998-2023, steel and concrete, 23 x 15 x 14 inches
Sledge, 2020, steel, 31 x 98 x 28 inches
Agave, 2023, steel, 43 x 58 x 38 inches
Ledge 2, 2022, steel, 38 x 34 x 14 inches
6 Color Column, 2024, concrete, 73 x 24 x 14 inches
Shadow Column, 2022, wood and Hydrostone, 72 x 14 x 14 inches
Fan Column, 2022, concrete, 72 x 14 x 14 inches
Flame, 2024, painted steel, 29 x 13 x 9 inches
White Cloud 3, 2016, painted wood, 6 x 80 x 6 inches
Spoonful, 1998-2023 steel and concrete
23 x 15 x 14 in.
TW079
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Sledge, 2020
31 x 98 x 28 in.
TW033
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Agave, 2023
43 x 58 x 38 in.
TW080
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Ledge 2, 2022
38 x 34 x 14 in.
TW082
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6 Color Column, 2024
73 x 24 x 14 in.
TW085
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$15,000
$36,000
$36,000
Shadow Column, 2022 wood and Hydrostone
72 x 14 x 14 in.
TW083
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Fan Column, 2022 concrete
72 x 14 x 14 in.
TW081
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$20,000
Flame, 2024 painted steel
29 x 13 x 9 in.
TW086
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$20,000
$24,000
White Cloud 3, 2016 painted wood
6 x 80 x 6 in.
TW084
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$6,000
$10,000
$36,000
Born: 1953 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lives: Corrales, New Mexico
Education:
1977 – 79 University of New Mexico
1976 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Minnesota
1972 – 73 University of Notre Dame
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2024 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2016 William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2014 Leslie Sacks Contemporary, Santa Monica, CA
2012 William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2007 William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2008 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2005 Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2002 Linda Durham Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Quint Gallery, La Jolla, CA
2000 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1999 Conlon Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1997 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1996 Conlon Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1995 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1993 Linda Durham Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1992 Linda Durham Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Conlon Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1990 Conlon Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1987 Shidoni Gallery, Tesuque, NM
1985 Wright Gallery, Dallas, TX
1984 Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2018 Great & Small, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Color Bites, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Spring Break, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2017 Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Zietgiest, Nashville, TN
2013 Nautilus, William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2009 Elmurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL
2005 Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2004 Contemporary Arts in the Public Realm, Albuquerque, NM
1999 The Minimalist Tradition in New Mexico, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
1998 Finding the Familiar, Zietgiest, Nashville, TN Pierwalk ’98, Chicago, IL
1997 Pierwalk ’97, Chicago, IL
1997 New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1996 Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
1994 El Mundo de Arte de Nuevo Mexico, Guadalahara, Mexico
1991 New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1990 Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
1990 Albuquerque Museum of Fine Art, Albuquerque, NM
1987 Albuquerque Museum of Fine Art, Albuquerque, NM
Selected Collections:
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Albuquerque Museum
Albuquerque Public Library
City of Durango, Colorado
Colorado State University
New Mexico Museum of Art
New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts
Santa Fe Community College
Scripps Hospital, La Jolla, CA
State of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico - Gallup
UNM Hospital, Albuquerque
Wheaton Public Library, IL
Selected Publications:
Adlmann, Jan. Contemporary Art in New Mexico, Craftsman House, 1996, 194-197, 225 Adlmann, Jan. “Report from Santa Fe.” Art in America, January1995, 50-52 Carlisle, Susanna. “Tom Waldron” (review). THE Magazine, September 1999, 61 Kuspit, Donald. “Tom Waldron” (review). Artforum, April 2002, 140 Lhamo, Rinchen. “Tom Waldron: Sculpture” (review). THE Magazine, July 2005, 58 Lhamo, Rinchen. “Tom Waldron: New Works” (review). THE Magazine, October 2007, 51 Newmann, Dana, & Parsons, Jack. New Mexico Artists at Work, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2005, 162-164 Peterson, William. “Ten for the Nineties.” ArtNews, April 1990,152 Peterson, William. “Tom Waldron.” Artspace, November / December 1989, 34-35 Potts, LeAnne. “Coffee Filters?” Albuquerque Journal, February 12, 2004, A1,3 Reed, Arden. “Tom Waldron” (review). Art in America, September 2005, 160 Stern, Fred. “Letter From America.” Mizue, Spring 1990, 126 “Universe of Tom Waldron.” THE Magazine, October 1993, 6-7
