Tom Friedman

Tom Friedman is an American conceptual sculptor known for his idiosyncratic use of everyday materials in his sculpture. It is through Friedman’s unique sensitivity that he is able to take a mundane subject or trope and elevate it into something elegant, fascinating and entirely new.

Friedman was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1965. He earned his BFA in graphic illustration from Washington University in St Louis in 1988 and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Illinois Chicago in 1990. His artistic practice is defined by an intense focus on the process of making, with an emphasis on repetition, physical labour and the exploration of materiality.

In the vain of Piero Manzoni, Robert Rauschenberg and Marcel Duchamp, Friedman pushes notions of what materials can and should be used to make art. Spaghetti, toothpaste, Styrofoam, wood, pencil shavings, sugar cubes and bubble gum are just some of the media used by the artist in creating human forms, self-portraits, sculptures, photographs, drawings and paintings. 

Friedman’s work is often infused with humour and irony, yet it is also deeply introspective, questioning the nature of perception and reality. Throughout his oeuvre Friedman’s focus on uncanny manipulation of materials delivers an expression of possibility — possibility of the body and matters — and humorously encourages an acceptance of imperfections and ambiguity.

Friedman’s art has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Tate Gallery in London. His sculptures, which often straddle the line between the conceptual and the absurd, continue to captivate audiences by transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.