Thaddeus Mosley

Using traditional techniques such as direct carving and lost-wax casting, Mosley's early works in wood and later works in bronze enter into a dance between the organic and manmade

Born in 1926 in New Castle, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Mosley has made sculptures from wood for over six and a half decades from his home in Pittsburgh. Using only a chisel and gauge to maintain the integrity of the original log, Mosley reworks salvaged timber into monumental abstractions. Through a process of direct carving, the artist's marks respond to and rearticulate the natural gradations of the material's surface. With influences ranging from Isamu Noguchi to Constantin Brâncusi, from Scandinavian design to West African sculpture--Mosley's "sculptural improvisations," as he calls them, also take cues from the modernist traditions of jazz. Weight in Space is the most comprehensive monograph on the artist's oeuvre to date. In addition to a detailed chronology, this volume features new scholarship by Fred Moten and Catharina Manchanda, a conversation between Mosley and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and excerpts from an extensive oral history interview conducted by Bridget R. Cooks and Amanda Tewes.

Alexis Lowry is a curator at Dia Art Foundation.
Fred Moten is a professor in the Departments of Performance Studies and Comparative Literature at NYU.
Jessica Bell Brown is executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Bridget R. Cooks is a professor of art history and African American studies at UC Irvine.
Amanda Tewes is an oral history specialist at UC Berkeley.
Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of Serpentine Galleries.

• Publisher: Karma, New York
  
• Publish Date: November 11, 2025
  
• Pages: 426
  
• Language: English
  
• Type: Hardcover
  
• EAN/UPC: 9781961883260
  
• Dimensions: 11 in H | 10.3 in W | 2.5 lb